The   Catholic   University   Pedagogical  Series 


VOL.  V 

PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 


Books  by  the  Same  Author 

THE  EDUCATION  OF  OUR  GIRLS: 

1907,  cloth,  8vo,  pp.  299. 

THE  MAKING  AND   THE   UNMAKING  OF   A 
DULLARD: 

1909,  cloth,  8vo,  pp.  296. 

TEACHER'S  MANUAL  OF  PRIMARY  METHODS: 
1912,  cloth,  8vo,  pp.  441. 

PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION:      . 
1917,  cloth,  8vo,  pp.  446. 

THE  CATHOLIC  EDUCATION  SERIES: 

FIRST  BOOK,  cloth,  8vo,  pp.  110;  20  sepia  illus- 
trations; 8  full-page  color  plates;  10  songs 
•with  music. 

SECOND  BOOK,  cloth,  8vo,  pp.  172;  42  sepia 
illustrations;  8  full-page  color  plates;  14  songs 
with  music. 

RELIGION,  THIRD  BOOK,  cloth,  8vo,  pp.  244; 
51  sepia  illustrations. 

THIRD  READER,  cloth,  8vo,  pp.  224;  31  sepia 
illustrations. 

RELIGION,  FOURTH  BOOK,  8vo,  cloth,  pp.  353; 

42  full-page  illustrations. 

FOURTH  READER,  8vo,  cloth,  pp.  351;  22  sepia 
illustrations. 

FIFTH  READER,  8vo,  cloth,  pp.  496;  22  sepia 
illustrations. 


THE  CATHOLIC  EDUCATION  PRESS 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


Philosophy  of  Education 


BY 


THOMAS  EDWARD  SHIELDS,  PH.D.,  LL.D. 

LATE   PROFESSOR    OP   PSYCHOLOGY    AND   EDUCATION   IN   THE 
CATHOLIC    UNIVERSITY    OP    AMERICA 


1921 

THE  CATHOLIC  EDUCATION  PRESS 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


Smpdmatur 

*  JAMES  CARDINAL  GIBBONS 

Archbishop  of  Baltimore 


Copyright,  1917.  by  T.  E.  Shields 


<&arban 


7n  grateful  acknowledgment  of  ef- 
fective cooperation  in  elevating  the 
standards  of  our  Catholic  schools 
and  in  *  drawing  them  into  closer 
unity 

fyi*  boob  is  beoicateb. 


PREFACE 

The  Philosophy  of  Education  furnishes  a  common 
meeting  ground  for  all  who  are  interested  in  any  phase  of 
educational  work.  The  correct  solution  of  the  problems 
which  it  discusses  concerns  the  pastor  and  his  people  no 
less  than  it  does  the  teacher  and  his  pupils. 

The  Catholics  of  this  country  are  justly  proud  of  their 
schools.  The  magnitude  attained  by  the  Catholic  school 
system,  during  the  last  few  decades,  in  spite  of  the  double 
taxation  of  our  people  which  is  involved,  bears  eloquent 
testimony  to  the  faith,  generosity  and  loyalty  of  our 
Catholic  people.  The  excellence  of  the  work  accomplished 
by  the  schools  for  our  Catholic  children  along  intellectual, 
moral  and  religious  lines  is  abundant  compensation  for 
all  the  sacrifices  made. 

The  time  is  now  at  hand  for  earnest  consideration  of 
the  great  fundamental  principles  which  make  for  the 
integration  and  standardization  of  our  schools.  They 
have  all  sprung  from  Catholic  impulse  and  they  all  share 
in  the  common  aim  of  the  preservation  of  the  Catholic 
faith  of  our  children  and  the  salvation  of  their  souls. 
But  there  is  urgent  need  of  more  uniformity  hi  curricula 
and  methods  among  the  several  hundred  teaching  com- 
munities which  are  at  present  conducting  the  schools. 
There  is  need  also  of  clear  vision  to  save  our  schools  from 
being  injuriously  affected  by  the  educational  philosophy 
which  is  reducing  itself  to  practice  in  our  state  schools  and 
which  is  finding  persuasive  expression  in  educational  man- 
uals and  in  current  literature. 

Both  in  the  problems  selected  for  discussion  in  this 
book  and  in  the  method  of  their  treatment,  the  needs  of 

7 


8  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  pastor  and  of  our  intelligent  Catholic  laity  have  been 
kept  in  mind  as  well  as  the  needs  of  the  teachers  actually 
engaged  in  the  work  of  our  schools.  It  is  a  matter  of 
grave  importance  that  our  Catholic  laity  should  have  a 
thorough  understanding  of  the  meaning  of  Catholic 
education,  of  the  needs  of  our  schools,  and  of  the  relation- 
ship which  should  exist  between  their  work  and  that  of  the 
state  schools.  It  is  not  to  be  expected,  of  course,  that  the 
reader  will  in  every  instance  agree  with  the  author  in  the 
solutions  arrived  at.  The  important  thing  is  to  arouse 
interest  and  center  attention  on  the  chief  problems  that 
are  calling  for  a  fresh  study  and  a  new  formulation  in  the 
light  of  the  present  social  and  economic  changes  and  of  the 
present  trend  of  state  education.  The  pastor  can  accom- 
plish much  in  the  promotion  of  Catholic  interest  in  educa- 
tional matters  by  the  discussion  of  many  of  these  topics 
from  the  pulpit  and  the  platform. 

It  is  hoped  that  the  book  may  serve  as  a  convenient 
text  for  use  in  novitiate  normal  courses  and  as  a  means  of 
stimulating  the  professional  studies  of  the  teachers  who 
are  in  actual  service. 

The  book  is  divided  into  three  parts,  in  the  first  of  which 
the  nature  of  the  educative  process  is  examined  from  vari- 
ous points  of  view.  In  Chapter  II,  physical  and  social 
heredity  are  contrasted.  The  meaning  of  infancy, 
together  with  the  possibility  and  the  need  of  education, 
is  studied.  In  Chapter  III,  attention  is  called  to  a 
fundamental  change  of  far-reaching  importance  in  the 
center  of  human  interest,  both  in  the  world  at  large  and 
in  the  educative  process.  In  the  following  chapter, 
education  is  studied  in  one  of  its  effects,  namely,  that  of 
adjusting  the  individual  to  his  environment.  The 
fundamental  and  pernicious  errors  involved  in  the  Culture 


PREFACE  9 

Epoch  Theory  are  next  pointed  out.  A  study  is  then 
made  of  the  child-mind  under  the  aspects  of  growth  and 
development.  In  Chapter  VIII,  the  various  steps  are 
pointed  out  through  which  man,  from  a  recognition  of  the 
controlling  power  of  law  in  physical  phenomena,  has 
come  to  recognize  the  fact  that,  in  spite  of  intelligence  and 
free  will,  mental  life  in  its  growth  and  development  is 
subject  to  similar  laws.  This  phase  of  the  work  closes 
with  a  discussion  of  the  function  of  experience,  which 
has  recently  come  into  the  foreground  in  educational 
literature  as  the  key  to  methods. 

After  this  study  of  the  nature  of  the  educative  process, 
attention  is  called  in  the  second  part  of  the  book  to  the 
various  ends  towards  which  the  process  should  be  directed 
by  educational  agencies.  An  attempt  is  made,  in  the 
first  place,  to  determine  the  ultimate  aim  of  Christian 
education.  Once  the  direction  is  fixed,  attention  is  then 
called  in  succession  to  other  aims  in  the  general  order  of 
their  importance.  The  third  part  of  the  book  is  devoted 
to  a  consideration  of  the  chief  educational  agencies,  such 
as  the  home,  the  church,  the  school,  state  school  systems, 
and  the  Catholic  school  system.  The  concluding  chapters 
are  devoted  to  a  brief  consideration  of  the  curriculum 
and  of  the  selecting  and  training  of  teachers  in  the  state 
systems  and  in  the  Catholic  system. 

In  the  study  of  educational  agencies,  the  historical  point 
of  view  is  dominant.  This  is  in  accordance  with  the 
theory  developed  in  Chapter  III.  The  nature  of  these 
institutions  cannot  be  rightly  understood  by  a  study  of 
their  present  condition  or  through  a  study  of  a  cross- 
section  of  any  one  period  of  the  past.  The  relation  of  the 
school  to  the  church,  the  home  and  the  state  is  best  seen  in 
an  historical  survey  of  the  relations  which  the  institutions 


10  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

bore  to  each  other  in  different  countries  and  of  the  effect 
produced. 

No  attempt  has  been  made  to  cover  the  entire  field  of 
the  philosophy  of  education.  Such  a  procedure  would 
either  swell  the  volume  unduly  or  reduce  the  treatment 
of  each  topic  to  a  mere  synopsis  which  would  lack 
vitality  and  power.  The  present  plan  was  adopted  in 
the  belief  that  more  would  be  accomplished  by  treating 
a  few  topics  with  sufficient  fullness  to  awaken  interest 
than  by  giving  a  mere  outline  of  the  whole  field,  however 
balanced  might  be  its  proportions. 

Much  of  the  matter  contained  in  this  volume  has  been 
used  by  the  author  in  lectures  given  in  various  parts  of 
the  country  at  diocesan  institutes  and  at  the  mother- 
houses  of  teaching  communities  of  men  and  women  between 
the  years  1895  and  1910.  Portions  of  it  were  also  used  as  a 
text  in  courses  given  at  the  Sisters  College  and  in  the 
Department  of  Education  at  the  Catholic  University. 
Several  chapters  have  appeared  in  their  entirety  in  the 
Catholic  Educational  Review  during  1916. 

It  is  believed  that  sufficient  reference  to  the  bibliography 
is  supplied  in  the  footnotes  in  which  acknowledgment 
to  the  sources  drawn  upon  is  made.  A  fuller  bibliography 
may  readily  be  obtained  today  in  any  educational  library 
and  need  not,  therefore,  cumber  our  pages. 

The  author  takes  this  occasion  to  make  grateful  acknowl- 
edgment to  Dr.  Pace  for  many  valuable  suggestions 
received  in  the  preparation  of  several  of  the  chapters  of 
the  book  and  to  Dr.  McCormick  and  Father  McVay  for 
suggestions  and  criticisms.  Thanks  are  also  due  to 
Miss  Frances  Askew  for  assistance  in  preparing  the 
manuscript  and  for  reading  the  proof.  T.  E.  S. 

Feast  of  the  Purification,  1917. 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 
Introduction 

Page 

The  Philosophy  of  Education  in  the  Curriculum 21 

Pure  and  Applied  Philosophy 24 

The  Eugenic  Viewpoint 26 

Physical  and  Social  Heredity 27 

Genetic  Philosophy  of  Education 28 

The  Conversion  Motive '28 

Psychological  Aspect  of  Religion 29 

The  Catholic  Standpoint 31 

PART  I 
THE  NATURE  OF  THE  EDUCATIVE  PROCESS 

CHAPTER  II 
Physical  and  Social  Heredity 

Human  and  Animal  Instinct 35 

Education  and  Social  Heredity 87 

The  Five-fold  Spiritual  Inheritances 88 

Individual  and  Social  Welfare 39 

From  Didactic  to  Organic  Methods 41 

Social  Heredity  as  Mental  Food 41 

The  Church  and  Secular  Education 42 

Four-fold  Source  of  Mental  Food 43 

Absence  of  God  Causes  Fragmented  Curriculum 45 

CHAPTER  III 
From  the  Static  to  the  Dynamic. 

Shifting  the  Center  of  Interest 48 

Didactic  and  Organic  Methods 48 

Jack  and  the  Bean-stalk  as  Parable 49 

Meaning  of  the  Doctrine  of  Evolution 50 

Rise  of  the  Doctrine  of  Evolution 52 

New  Interest  in  History 53 

From  Facts  to  Laws 53 

11 


12  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

Page 

Regeneration  by  Christianity 64 

Conquest  of  Nature's  Forces 56 

Society  Controls  the  School 57 

Educational  Aims 58 

CHAPTER  IV 
Education  as  Adjustment 

Formal  and  Informal  Education 61 

Rigidity  of  Instinct 62 

Plasticity 63 

Three  Ideals  of  Education 64 

Meaning  of  Adjustment 66 

Christianity  and  Progress 68 

Development  of  Plasticity 70 

Modification  of  Environment 72 

Self-Conquest 73 

Value  of  Individual  Plasticity 74 

Ideal  of  Chinese  Education 75 

Education  and  Plasticity 77 

Habits  and  Instincts 78 

CHAPTER  V 
Culture  Epoch  Theory 

The  Influence  of  Biology  on  Education 80 

The  Recapitulation  Theory 81 

Suppressed  Function  of  Obsolete  Structures 83 

Recapitulation  and  the  Culture  Epoch  Theory 86 

History  of  the  Culture  Epoch  Theory 87 

Mistaken  Applications 89 

Industrial  and  Social  History  Series 91 

The  Eskimo  Stories 96 

Dangers  of  the  Culture  Epoch  Theory 97 

CHAPTER  VI 
Mental  Growth 

Meaning  of  the  Terms,  "Growth"  and  "Development"   .    .  99 

Four  Types  of  Growth 100 

Growth  Modified  by  Environment 104 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS  13 

Pag* 

Types  Are  Determined  from  Within 106 

Memory  Loads  Injurious 108 

The  Catechetical  Method 109 

The  Ratios  of  Growth Ill 

Growth  of  the  Micrococci 113 

Demands  of  Science  on  Education 115 

Mental  Assimilation 116 

CHAPTER  VII 
Mental  Development 

Meaning  of  Development 117 

Ontogeny  and  Phylogeny 120 

The  Dependence  of  the  Embryo 122 

Physical  and  Mental  Development 122 

Meaning  of  Infancy 128 

Education  and  Mental  Development 129 

Growth  and  Development 130 

CHAPTER  VIH 

Recognition  of  the  Reign  of  Law 

Early  Tendencies  towards  Monotheism 132 

Beginnings  of  Inductive  Science 134 

The  Miracle  and  Natural  Law 135 

The  Meaning  of  Creation 137 

Breaks  in  Nature 141 

Unity  in  Nature 144 

Education  and  the  Recognition  of  Mental  Law 145 

CHAPTER  IX 

The  Function  of  Experience 

The  Postulates  of  Modern  Education 146 

Habit  as  Modification  of  Instinct 148 

Necessity  of  Education 150 

Differences  between  Man  and  Animal 151 

Nature  of  Social  Inheritance 152 

Functions  of  Experience 153 

Nature  and  Function  of  Inhibition 154 

Education  as  Controlled  Experience 156 


14  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

PART  H 

EDUCATIONAL  AIMS 
CHAPTER  X 

The  Ultimate  Aim  of  Christian  Education 

Page 

Physical  Heredity  as  the  Aim  of  Education 161 

Biological  and  Ethical  Aims 163 

Tie  Ascendancy  of  Man's  Spiritual  Nature 165 

Suppression  of  Obsolete  Instincts 167 

Necessity  of  Divine  Authority 168, 174 

Aim  of  Christian  Education 169 

The  Natural  and  the  Supernatural 172, 177 

Intellect  and  Instinct 176 

The  Five-fold  Dependence  of  Children  on  Parents  ....  178 

CHAPTER  XI 
Physical  Education 

Necessity  of  Physical  Education 181 

Authority  Necessary  for  Physical  Life 182,185,190 

Treatment  of  Adolescents 184 

Authority  and  the  Formation  of  Habits 186 

Home  and  Physical  Education 187 

School  and  Physical  Education 188 

Functions  of  Play 188 

School  Hygiene 191 

CHAPTER  XII 
Balances  in  Development 

Relation  between  Soul  and  Body 194 

Physical  and  Mental  Development 195, 199 

Functions  of  the  Brain 196 

Precocity  and  Dullness 197 

Dangers  of  Competition 199 

Mental  Development  Should  Precede  Mental  Growth  .    .    .  201 

Necessity  of  Mental  Scaffolding 205 

Necessity  for  Adequate  Preparation 206 

Necessity  of  Symmetrical  Development 210 

Productive  and  Receptive  Scholarship 211 


TABLE  OF   CONTENTS  15 

CHAPTER  XIII 
Education  for  Economic  Efficiency 

Page 

Educating  for  Self-support 213 

The  Bread-and-Butter  Aim 214 

The  Embryo  and  the  Parasite 215 

Value  of  Effort 217 

The  Industrial  Aim 220 

Society's  Motive  in  Educating 220 

Necessity  of  Cooperation 221 

Authority  and  Industrial  Efficiency 233 

Compulsory  Apprenticeship  in  England 224 

The  State  and  Industrial  Education 224 

The  State  and  Economic  Efficiency 225 

Continuation  Schools 226 

U.  S.  Government  and  Industrial  Education 227 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Education  for  Social  Efficiency 

The  Value  of  Effort 228 

Laborare  et  Orare 229 

Subordination  of  Lower  to  Higher  Aims 229 

Obedience  to  God  the  Foundation  of  Social  Service  ....  231 

Love  of  God  and  Fellow-man  the  Aim  of  Education  ....  232 

The  Industrial  Home 234 

Motivation  of  the  Child 234 

Educating  for  Leisure 238 

Educating  for  Home-making 240 

Cultural  Education 241 

CHAPTER  XV 
Education  for  Individual  Culture 

Claims  of  the  Individual 242 

Educating  for  Complete  Living 243 

Function  of  Memory       243 

Culture  and  Specialization 244,  247 

Remedies  for  Materialism 245 

Productive  and  Receptive  Scholarship 247,  .248- 


16  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

Page 

Cognitive  Elements  of  Culture 249 

Culture  and  Emotional  Control 250 

Conceit  and  Self -consciousness 251 

Various  Meanings  of  Culture 253 

The  Production  of  Culture 254 

Culture  and  the  Classics 256 

CHAPTER  XVI 
Education  for  Citizenship 

The  Functions  of  the  State 258 

Democracy  and  Education 259 

The  Selection  and  Training  of  Leaders 262 

Reasons  for  Universal  Education 263 

Industrial  Efficiency  and  Civic  Virtue 264 

Faith,  Hope  and  Love,  Fundamental  Civic  Virtues  ....  264 

Cooperation  and  Competition 267, 269 

Necessity  of  a  Christian  Home 268 

Disinterestedness 270 

Obedience 271 

Self-control 272 

Public  School  Morality 273 

PART  III 

EDUCATIVE  AGENCIES 

CHAPTER  XVH 

The  Home 

Adjustment  to  Institutional  Life 277 

Position  of  Pagan  and  Christian  Family 278 

Position  of  Woman  in  Pagan  and  Christian  Tunes    ....  279 

Educating  for  Family  Life 280,  297 

Parental  Duties  in  Education  of  Children 282 

The  Industrial  Home 283 

The  Home  of  the  Future 284 

Separation  of  Social  and  Economic  Units 286 

Educating  for  Home-making 287 

Education  of  Women 289 

Home  Education .  292 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  17 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

The  Church 

Page 

Educational  Charter  of  the  Church 298 

Plasticity  of  the  Church 299 

Foerster's  Career 301 

Trend  Away  from  Materialism 302 

Man's  Spiritual  Needs 303 

The  Church  and  Adult  Guidance 304 

The  Church's  Methods 305 

The  Church  Reaches  the  Whole  Man 306 

Educative  Principles  in  Liturgy 307 

Feeling  and  Mental  Assimilation 309 

Sacraments  as  Means  of  Education 310 

Rationalizing  Feeling 814 

The  Laws  of  Imitation 315 

Building  Ideals 316 

The  Imitation  of  the  Saints 317 

Utilization  of  Instincts 319 

Organic  Teaching  of  the  Church 320 

CHAPTER  XIX 

The  School 

Relations  between  Home,  School,  Church  and  State    ...  821 

Origin  of  the  School 322 

College  Hazing 323 

Chinese  Education 824 

Hebrew  Education 826 

Religion  and  Progress 329 

Spartan  Education 829 

Athenian  Education 330 

Roman  Education 331 

The  School  and  Social  Needs 333 

Origin  of  Christian  Schools 333 

Catecumenal  and  Catechetical  Schools 834 

Secular  Branches  in  Christian  Schools 334 

Christian  and  State  Schools 835 

Charlemagne  and  Education 836 

Spread  of  Christian  Education 886 


18  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

Page 

Education  Checked  by  Protestanism 338 

Early  Colonial  Schools 338 

State  Control  of  Schools 340 

Governor  Seward's  Message 341 

Archbishop  Hughes  and  the  School  Controversy 343 

Development  of  Catholic  School  System 344 

Religion  Barred  from  State  Schools 344 

Catholic  and  State  Schools  Compared 346 

CHAPTER  XX 
State  School  Systems 

The  Church  and  School  Systems 848 

Rise  of  the  State  System  in  Prussia 349 

Frederick  the  Great  and  Education 350 

Prussian  System  Undemocratic 352 

Volksschule,  Vorschule  and  Gymnasium 353 

State  Centralization  in  England  and  France .  354 

Rise  of  State  Systems  in  New  England 355 

The  State  and  General  Diffusion  of  Knowledge 357 

Difficulties  of  Creating  State  Systems  in  New  England    .    .  359 

The  Professional  Training  of  Teachers 360 

Horace  Mann  and  Henry  Barnard 361 

Rise  of  the  High  School 362 

Socialistic  Tendencies  in  State  Education 363 

Undermining  Home  and  Church 366 

Return  to  the  Individualistic  Aim 368 

Rise  of  Vocational  Schools 368 

CHAPTER  XXI 
The  Catholic  School  System 

Plasticity  of  Catholic  School  Systems 371 

Church  Control  of  Education 372 

The  Vernacular  in  Catholic  Schools 372 

Brethren  of  the  Common  Life 373 

Jesuit  Schools 375 

Christian  Brothers  and  their  Work 380 

Spread  of  the  Brother's  Schools 383 

Teaching  Communities  in  U.   S 383 

Rise  of  Diocesan  School  Systems 385 

Propaganda  and  Catholic  Schools 387 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS  ]9 

Page 

Unification  of  Catholic  Education 389 

Functions  of  the  Catholic  University 391 

The  Catholic  Educational  Association 393 

The  Catholic  Sisters  College 393 

The  Affiliation  of  Catholic  High  Schools 394 

The  Catholic  Educational  Review 394 

State  and  Catholic  School  Systems  Compared  ......  395 

CHAPTER  XXII 
Curriculum 

Changes  in  the  Curriculum 397 

Articulation  of  Schools 398 

Curriculum  of  Early  Massachusetts  Schools 398 

Art,  Letters  and  Science  among  the  Puritans 399 

Purpose  of  the  Curriculum 400 

Curriculum  of  Medieval  Schools 401 

Religion  in  the  Curriculum 402 

Educational  Value  of  Liturgy 403 

Religion  Excluded  from  State  Schools 405 

Secular  Branches  in  Catholic  Schools 405 

Curriculum  and  Mental  Development 406 

Education  as  Experience 407 

Influence  of  the  Lives  of  the  Saints 409 

Foerster's  View 409 

Vital  and  Instrumental  Knowledge 411 

CHAPTER  XXIII 
The  Teacher  and  His  Training 

Academic  and  Professional  Training 413 

Methods  in  Early  New  England  Schools 414 

Selection  and  Training  of  State  School  Teachers 415 

Education  an  Economic  Function 418 

Feminization  of  State  Schools 419 

The  Teacher  and  Civic  Education 420 

Vocations  to  Teaching  Communities 422 

Catholic  Schools  and  the  Betterment  of  Society 424 

Influence  of  the  Ascetic  Ideal 426 

Religious  Novitiate  and  the  Training  of  Teachers 430 


CHAPTER  I 
INTRODUCTION 

The  Philosophy  of  Education  is  the  basic  element  in 
the  professional  training  of  the  teacher.  In  this  science 
the  teacher  seeks  for  the  meaning  of  the  educative  process 
as  it  takes  place  in  the  mind  of  the  pupil  and  for  the  goal 
towards  which  it  should  be  directed.  He  must  turn  to  the 
same  source  for  the  fundamental  principles  which  should 
guide  in  the  selection  and  arrangement  of  the  materials 
of  the  curriculum  in  the  various  stages  of  the  educative 
process  and  for  the  educative  values  of  the  different 
disciplines  to  be  employed.  In  these  days  of  rapid  and 
deep-seated  social  and  economic  changes,  the  work  of  the 
school  is  undergoing  a  corresponding  change  in  character 
and  in  aim.  This  makes  unusual  demands  on  the  philos- 
ophy of  education  and  places  added  emphasis  on  its  neces- 
sity in  the  training  of  the  teacher,  nor  is  the  necessity  for 
this  science  confined  to  the  teacher.  The  layman,  through 
his  vote,  exerts  a  controlling  influence  on  the  school  and 
upon  the  relationship  which  should  exist  between  it  and 
other  social  institutions  of  such  fundamental  importance 
as  the  home,  the  church  and  the  state. 

The  Philosophy  of  Education  is  closely  related  to  the 
Psychology  of  Education  and  to  the  History  of  Education. 
Through  the  former,  light  is  shed  upon  the  conscious 
processes  of  the  child  and  intelligence  is  gained  concerning 
the  educative  process  in  its  relationship  to  the  unfolding 
powers  and  faculties  of  the  individual.  The  philosophy 
of  education  carries  these  considerations  up  to  a  wider 
viewpoint  and  studies  them  in  their  relation  to  life  as  a 
whole  and  to  the  attainment  of  its  aims.  Through  the 
latter,  control  is  exerted  upon  the  conclusions  drawn  both 

21 


£2  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

in  the  psychology  of  education  and  in  the  philosophy  of 
education,  and  further  light  is  gained  on  the  relations 
which  should  exist  between  the  school  and  other  social 
institutions. 

The  philosophy  of  education,  the  psychology  of  educa- 
tion and  the  history  of  education  are  linked  together  in 
their  services  to  the  teacher  and  interwoven  with  each 
other  as  the  basis  of  his  professional  training.  On  this 
basis  rest  the  other  branches  included  in  the  curriculum 
of  the  normal  school  and  the  teachers  college. 

Philosophy,  psychology  and  history  belong  to  the  aca- 
demic rather  than  to  the  professional  curriculum.  They  are 
pure  sciences  and,  as  such,  are  presupposed  by  the  corre- 
sponding applied  sciences,  which  latter  belong  to  the 
professional  curriculum.  The  aim  in  pure  science  is 
knowledge;  the  aim  in  applied  science  is  action.  In  the 
former,  the  desire  culminates  in  knowing;  in  the  latter, 
it  is  not  satisfied  until  the  knowledge  gained  issues  in 
action.  Pure  science  leads  to  discovery,  while  applied 
science  aims  at  invention.  Applied  science  presupposes 
pure  science  and  is  limited  by  its  development.  Invention 
may  lag  behind  discovery;  it  rarely,  if  ever,  overtakes  it, 
and,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  it  never  can  transcend  it. 

Philosophy,  more  perhaps  than  any  other  discipline, 
deserves  the  name  of  pure  science,  since  it  deals  with  the 
highest  amis  and  ultimate  causes  of  all  things.  At  first 
sight,  it  seems  to  be  far  removed  from  the  strife  and 
turmoil  of  actual  life  in  this  material  world,  and  yet  the 
practical  conclusions  reached  in  philosophy  have  a  more 
far-reaching  effect  upon  the  conduct  of  life  than  do  the 
findings  of  any  other  science.  A  man's  philosophy,  by 
imperceptible  degrees,  colors  the  whole  of  his  life  and 
affects  his  attitude  towards  all  things  in  heaven  and  on 


INTRODUCTION  23 

earth.  In  like  manner,  the  prevalent  philosophy  of  a 
people  gradually  transforms  all  their  social  institutions; 
nevertheless,  the  aim  of  philosophy,  as  such,  is  knowledge, 
not  conduct.  This,  however,  does  not  prevent  the 
content  of  philosophy  from  exerting  its  practical  influence. 
The  conscious  and  deliberate  aim  in  eating  may  be  the 
gratification  of  the  palate  and  the  immediate  satisfaction 
of  appetite,  but  these  aims  do  not,  for  all  that,  prevent 
the  food  from  nourishing  the  body  and  from  building  up 
bone  and  muscle  and  nerve. 

That  portion  of  the  field  of  pure  philosophy  which  deals 
with  the  development  of  the  mind,  with  the  process  and 
meaning  of  education,  with  the  relations  of  the  school  to 
the  church  and  the  home,  might  appropriately  be  called 
educational  philosophy,  but,  in  spite  of  the  information 
which  it  supplies  to  the  teaching  profession,  it  is  an 
academic  and  not  a  professional  discipline. 

The  philosophy  of  education,  as  a  branch  of  applied 
science,  is  not  concerned  directly  with  the  establishment 
of  fundamental  principles  in  any  department  of  philosophy. 
Its  business  is  to  apply  the  truths  and  principles  estab- 
lished by  pure  philosophy  to  the  practical  conduct  of  the 
educative  process.  It  seeks  to  lift  into  consciousness  and 
to  make  rational  and  deliberate,  as  well  as  more  immediate 
and  effective,  the  relation  between  the  philosophical 
truth  and  the  life  and  conduct  of  the  pupil,  and  endeavors 
to  guide  the  teacher  in  the  manifold  relations  which  he 
sustains  towards  his  pupils  in  the  imparting  of  knowledge, 
in  the  building  of  habits,  and  in  the  gaining  of  power  and 
insight  into  the  purposes  and  meanings  of  life. 

If  philosophy  were  an  exact  science,  such  as  mathe- 
matics, the  task  of  the  writer  on  the  philosophy  of  educa- 
tion would  be  lighter  but,  as  the  case  stands,  w« 


24  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

find  men,  in  every  department  of  philosophy,  differing 
profoundly  in  the  conclusions  which  they  draw.  A  preva- 
lent school  of  philosophy  in  our  own  day  confines  the 
meaning  of  life  to  this  \7orld,  rejecting  the  existence  of 
God  and  the  continuance  of  personal  consciousness  beyond 
the  grave  as  myths  which  have  no  claim  to  human  belief. 
In  a  word,  to  these  men  human  life  is  nothing  more  than 
a  high  form  of  animal  life,  and  the  purpose  of  education 
is  to  render  the  individual  more  aggressive  and  more 
efficient  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  either  alone  or  in 
groups.  They  reject  wholly  the  existence  of  any  super- 
natural power  which  could  redeem  fallen  man  and  find  the 
highest  ideal  of  human  life  laid  down  in  the  physical 
heredity  of  the  child. 

Over  against  this  school  of  philosophy  should  be 
placed  the  philosophy  maintained  by  the  Catholic  Church, 
which  aims  at  perfecting  man  in  the  present  life  as  a  means 
of  fitting  him  for  a  life  hereafter;  which  seeks  to  suppress 
aggressiveness  and  enthrone  brotherly  love  as  the  con- 
trolling power  in  human  affairs;  which  finds  one  of  the 
chief  functions  of  education  to  be  the  redemption  of  fallen 
man,  the  elimination  of  low  instincts,  and  the  substitution 
of  supernatural  virtues  built  up  in  the  light  of  faith  and 
with  the  assistance  of  Divine  grace. 

The  philosophy  of  education  tends  to  quicken  and  to 
deepen  the  flow  of  conviction  into  action,  of  doctrine  into 
conduct,  and  it  is  achieving  these  ends  in  ever-increasing 
measure  in  our  day.  The  current  educational  literature, 
monographs,  text-books,  and  popular  treatises  are  forming 
all  our  teachers  and  animating  then*  work  with  the  current 
philosophy,  which  is,  for  the  most  part,  a  philosophy  wholly 
at  variance  with  Catholic  ideas  and  ideals  of  life. 

If  the  pure  philosophy  drawn  upon  be  wholesome,  the 


INTRODUCTION  25 

philosophy  of  education  will  tend  to  make  the  transforma- 
tion of  society  through  the  school  an  uplifting  process. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  philosophy  used  as  the 
source  be  false  and  its  ideals  low,  the  philosophy  of 
education  will  have  equal  effectiveness  in  debasing  life  and 
in  corrupting  social  institutions.  It  is,  therefore,  a  matter 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  Catholics  that  the  philosophy 
of  education  employed  in  the  training  of  Catholic  teachers 
be  not  only  technically  efficient,  but  that  it  be  such  as 
draws  from  the  pure  fountains  of  Catholic  philosophy 
wholesome  principles  of  life. 

The  philosophy  that  leaves  no  room  for  God,  for  a 
spiritual  soul,  nor  for  a  life  hereafter,  fixes  a  totally 
different  goal  for  the  educative  process  from  that  aimed  at 
by  the  Catholic  who  not  only  believes  in  the  spiritual  side 
of  human  nature,  but  holds  among  his  most  firm  convic- 
tions the  belief  in  a  supernatural  destiny  and  in  a  redemp- 
tion wrought  through  the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
educator  who  holds  that  man  does  not  transcend  the 
realm  of  animal  Hie,  will  naturally  endeavor  to  endow  each 
coming  generation  of  children  with  those  qualities  which 
have  marked  the  success  of  the  animal  in  the  long  biological 
struggle  for  existence.  He  will  seek  the  ideal  of  human 
life  within  the  narrow  lines  of  physical  heredity  and  will 
turn  exclusively  to  physical  sources  for  the  means  of 
realizing  that  ideal.  Nor  must  what  is  here  said  be 
regarded  as  an  accusation  brought  against  a  prevalent 
school  of  thought  by  an  unfriendly  critic.  This  view  is 
expressly  set  forth  as  the  ideal  of  the  Eugenic  School  by 
many  of  its  votaries.  We  select,  as  a  typical  instance  of 
such  teaching,  the  following  passage  from  an  address 
delivered  before  the  Child  Conference  for  Research  and 
Welfare  at  Clark  University  in  1909,  by  Dr.  John  Franklin 


26  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

Bobbitt,  an  alumnus  of  Clark  University  and  a  professor 
in  the  University  of  Chicago:1 

"Since  man  became  man,  he  has  always  looked  forward 
to  an  ideal  future  state  on  earth,  a  Eutopia,  a  millennium, 
a  City  of  the  Sun,  a  Platonic  Republic,  where  all  men 
should  be  good  and  wise  and  strong.  And  yet,  wherever 
man  has  builded  a  civilization  in  his  striving  to  realize 
his  ideal  state,  in  Egypt,  or  Greece,  or  Carthage,  or  Rome, 
invariably  he  has  met  with  defeat.  Without  exception, 
his  state  crumbles  and  falls.  There  has  always  been 
some  invisible  undermining  influence,  which  he  failed  to 
see  and  to  prevent. 

"With  the  rise  of  the  science  of  biology,  we  have  dis- 
covered the  secret  of  their  decline,  and  have  discovered 
the  formula  for  counteracting  it  in  our  own  case.  The 
undermining  influences  were,  at  bottom,  biological  in 
their  cause;  and  the  formula  for  counteracting  them  in  our 
case  must  likewise  be  biological.  The  formula  is  the 
simple  one  used  by  Luther  Burbank  in  his  superb  crea- 
tions; for  all  life  grows  on  a  single  stem.  As  is  the 
parentage  so  is  the  next  generation.  If  the  next  genera- 
tion is  to  be  higher  than  this,  its  average  parentage  must 
be  higher  than  our  average.  This  law  is  fundamental, 
ineluctable,  not  to  be  vetoed  or  evaded.  We  may  prefer 
to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  law  because  of  its  difficulty  of 
application;  we  may  prefer  to  trust  to  an  assumed  plastic- 
ity because  it  appears  more  docile  to  our  wish;  we  may 
find  it  more  comfortable  to  fall  back  upon  the  faith  that 
good  intentions  cannot  go  wrong.  These  things  are  more 
pleasant,  if  pleasantness  is  OUT  aim.  But  if  improvement 
of  the  human  stock  is  our  aim,  biological  law  must  be 
followed  regardless  of  personal  wish." 

1  Proceedings.  New  York,  1909;  p.  78. 


INTRODUCTION  27 

The  author  of  this  passage  leaves  little  room  to  doubt 
the  nature  of  his  philosophy  or  his  views  concerning  human 
nature.  His  methods  for  improving  the  human  race  are 
explicitly  stated  to  be  the  methods  employed  by  the 
stock-breeder  or  the  horticulturist.  He  explicitly  denies 
a  plasticity  on  the  part  of  the  individual  which  would 
permit  of  the  effective  operation  of  redeeming  grace  or 
the  effective  performance  of  a  redeeming  function  by 
our  educative  agencies.  The  philosophy  here  stated, 
however,  is  extreme;  it  not  only  excludes  the  supernatural 
and  the  life  beyond  the  grave,  but  it  runs  counter  to  sound 
biological  doctrine  as  well.  Dr.  Bobbitt's  concentrated 
attention  on  the  processes  of  physical  heredity  seems  to 
have  blinded  him  to  the  fact  that  man's  chief  privilege 
lies  in  social  heredity  and  that  it  is  to  this  source  he  owes 
his  place  of  supreme  control  and  headship  in  the  world 
of  physical  life.  This  phase  of  the  subject  is  brought 
out  more  explicitly  in  the  following  passage  in  the  same 
paper: 

"At  present  our  doctrines  of  heredity  are  not  as  they 
were.  We  are  coming  to  see  that  heredity  is  dominant  in 
the  characters  of  men.  Human  plasticity  is  not  so  great 
as  has  been  assumed.  A  child  cannot  be  moulded  to  our 
will.  The  design  laid  in  heredity  is  the  only  one  that 
can  be  worked  out  in  actuality.  The  actual  is  only  a 
realized  copy  of  the  potential.  It  is  true  the  potential 
is  drawn  in  rather  broad  lines  thus  permitting  the  neces- 
sary degree  of  adaptation;  to  this  extent  the  individual  is 
plastic.  But  recent  statistics  of  heredity  show  that  the 
possible  deviation  is  not  great,  except  downward  in  the 
direction  of  breaking  and  marring."1 

Such  a  philosophy  leaves  no  room  for  redeeming  grace. 

1  Op.  cit.,  p.  74. 


28  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

It  denies  to  man  the  privilege  of  being  "born  again  of 
water  and  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  seeks  to  develop  him 
along  merely  animal  lines.  If  this  philosophy  be  followed 
out  consistently,  it  must  interpret  the  whole  content  of 
the  child's  social  heredity  in  such  a  manner  that  it  may 
fit  into  the  narrow  limits  of  animal  nature. 

A  more  systematic  presentation  of  the  philosophy 
which  lends  its  support  to  the  eugenic  view  will  be  found 
in  Genetic  Philosophy  of  Education,  an  Epitome  of  the 
Published  Writings  of  President  G.  Stanley  Hall,  of  Clark 
University,  by  G  E.  Partridge,  Ph.D. 

President  Hall,  in  his  preface,  accepts  it  as  a  correct 
presentation  of  the  views  which  he  has  expressed  on  so 
many  occasions  in  public  gatherings,  in  teachers'  meet- 
ings, and  in  books  and  brochures,  during  the  last  thirty 
years.  It  has  a  still  father  significance,  coming  from  the 
President  of  Clark  University  and  the  recognized  leader 
of  this  school  of  thinkers,  which  is  widely  represented  in 
the  teaching  staffs  of  the  training  schools  for  teachers 
throughout  the  country.  The  following  passage  will  serve 
to  illustrate  the  manner  in  which  this  school  of  educators 
seek  to  dispense  with  all  sources  of  uplift  outside  the 
narrow  confines  of  man's  animal  nature : 

"  Conversion  is  not  only  the  center  of  the  religious  and 
biological  change  at  adolescence,  but  it  is  also  the  clue  to 
understanding  the  psychology  of  the  higher  stages  of  the 
history  of  the  race.  The  conversion  motive  has  played  a 
great  part  in  history,  and  everywhere,  where  civilization 
has  reached  the  higher  levels,  it  is  recognized.  Among 
primitive  peoples  we  find  its  beginnings  in  the  form  of 
initiatory  rights  which  symbolize  the  entrance  of  the  youth 
into  manhood,  and  into  the  position  of  adult  responsibility. 
This  is  the  beginning  of  primitive  education.  It  is  a 


INTRODUCTION  29 

conscious  effort  to  establish,  in  the  inind  of  the  youth,  the 
best  traditions  of  the  race  to  which  he  belongs.  Much 
in  our  own  religion  is  symbolic  of  conversion  and  the 
adolescent  change.  The  conquest  of  the  world,  through 
grief  and  pain,  by  the  life  of  Jesus,  is  its  greatest  expression. 
The  cross  symbolizes  the  adolescent  struggle,  in  which  the 
old  life  of  self  and  sin  comes  into  sharp  conflict  with  the 
new  and  higher  motives  of  love  and  service.  Here  the 
movement  is  more  than  individual;  it  is  racial.  Jesus  ini- 
tiated into  the  world,  at  a  time  when  it  had.  degenerated 
as  a  result  of  individualism,  a  new  religion,  and  a  new 
culture,  based  upon  love  and  self-surrender.  He  himself 
was  an  adolescent,  and  most  of  His  disciples  were  youths. 
Every  youth  in  becoming  transformed  into  a  normal 
adult  thus  passes  through  the  stages  through  which  Jesus 
led  the  world. 

"The  story  of  the  Cross  and  of  the  life  of  Jesus  is  thus 
the  great  religious  masterpiece  of  the  race,  most  truly 
respresenting  its  higher  life.  In  lesser  form  the  theme 
appears  in  many  literatures.  Dante  is  the  story  of 
adolescence;  the  Holy  Grail,  the  Golden  Fleece,  Prome- 
theus, Boewulf,  and  Hiawatha  all  tell  the  same  tale. 
It  is  the  central  theme  of  religion,  in  its  highest  form. 
Through  all  the  lower  stages  of  racial  religion  the  child 
of  this  higher  civilization  passes,  and  the  partial  and 
false  beliefs  by  way  of  which  he  reaches  the  truer  and 
higher  are  necessary  steps.  When  religion  is  true  and 
deep,  these  beliefs  are  never  merely  cast  aside  or  dropped, 
but  the  highest  of  all  faiths  retains  the  power  of  still 
carrying  the  germs  of  the  old  beliefs,  and  of  sympathizing 
with  all  that  it  has  once  loved.  Religion  is,  therefore, 
to  be  regarded  as  a  product  of  inner  growth,  a  natural 
result  of  the  stages  of  feeling  through  which  man  passes. 


30'  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

Religion  has  its  sanction  within  us,  and  all  religious  cere- 
monies are  valuable  only  as  they  introduce  the  individual 
to  powers  within  himself  that  are  unexpressed.  The 
higher  truths  of  religion  are  revelations  to  a  single  self 
from  the  racial  or  cosmic  self  within  him. 

"The  religious  life  presents  many  other  problems  of 
psychology,  and  has  both  its  normal  and  its  abnormal 
phases.  Among  the  questions  which  are  largely  psycho- 
logical are:  prayer,  obedience,  sacrifice,  chastity,  asceti- 
cism, renunciation,  creeds,  dogmas,  doctrines,  worship, 
sacraments,  ritual,  ceremonies,  priests,  saints,  miracles, 
the  Sabbath,  symbols,  vows,  oaths,  sects — all  these  and 
all  similar  problems  are  open  for  psychological  investiga- 
tion, and  upon  psychology  rests  the  task  of  restating 
them,  and  of  reinterpreting  all  the  facts.  All  such 
questions  are  problems  of  the  higher  emotions,  and  they 
must  be  studied  with  reference  to  the  stages  of  develop- 
ment of  the  feelings,  both  in  the  race,  and  in  the  individual. 
Psychology  must  reform  the  ancient  dogmas  by  showing 
the  validity  of  the  feeling  elements  upon  which  they  rest. 
By  this  means  the  essentially  true  in  religion  will  be  rein- 
terpreted in  scientific  terms,  and  all  its  practical  problems 
will  be  brought  into  relation  with  questions  of  education 
and  other  needs  of  the  present  day."1 

This  passage  indicates  sufficiently  both  the  trend  of 
educational  psychology  in  this  country  and  the  need  of 
a  presentation  of  the  subject  from  a  Catholic  standpoint, 
both  as  a  protection  to  our  teachers  against  the  dangerous 
doctrines  that  are  seeping  into  schools  of  all  classes  and 
as  a  statement  of  the  Catholic  position  for  the  enlighten- 
ment of  non-Catholic  educators.  The  philosophy  of  life 


1  Partridge,  Genetic  Philosophy  of  Education,  New  York,  1912, 
pp.  56-8. 


INTRODUCTION  31 

presented  by  President  Hall  and  his  school  stands  in 
sharp  contrast  to  that  maintained  by  the  Catholic  Church. 
The  one  looks  to  man's  animal  nature  for  the  highest 
ideal  to  be  attained  and  for  all  the  means  to  be  employed 
in  the  educative  process  for  its  attainment.  The  other 
finds  in  man  a  higher  nature  which  transcends  animal  life 
and  claims  kinship  with  the  Pure  Spirit  Who  created  the 
heavens  and  the  earth.  The  one  looks  for  its  ideal  in  the 
physical  inheritance  of  the  child.  The  other  seeks  it  in 
the  revelation  made  by  God  to  man  and  it  seeks  for  the 
means  of  realizing  this  ideal  in  Divine  grace,  which  flows 
not  from  human  nature  but  directly  from  the  Deity. 

As  the  philosophies  of  these  two  schools  stand  in  sharp 
contrast  to  each  other,  so  must  the  ways  and  means  dealt 
with  in  the  corresponding  philosophies  of  education  differ. 
The  content  and  organization  of  the  curriculum  differ,  the 
interpretation  of  what  is  taught,  the  selection  and  training 
of  teachers,  no  less  than  the  methods  to  be  employed  by 
the  teachers  and  to  be  embodied  in  text-books  will  differ 
in  accordance  with  the  differences  in  the  underlying 
philosophies. 

But  in  spite  of  the  many  differences  discernible  between 
the  fundamental  principles  which  these  two  schools  seek 
to  apply  to  the  educative  process,  and  in  spite  of  the 
divergent  means  and  ends  which  must  forever  separate 
a  naturalistic  or  a  materialistic  philosophy  from  the 
philosophy  of  the  Catholic  Church,  a  substantial  agree- 
ment exists  between  them  on  certain  points  of  fundamental 
importance.  Men  who  have  learned  to  think  in  terms  of 
biology,  no  matter  how  widely  they  may  differ  in  their 
religious  beliefs  or  in  their  fundamental  philosophy  of 
life,  have  learned  to  look  upon  education  as  a  process 
by  which  society  seeks  to  perpetuate  its  institutions  and 


32  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

its  life  and  to  adjust  each  generation  of  children  to  the 
environments  into  which  they  must  enter  at  the  close  of 
the  school  period.  It  is  true  that,  according  to  one 
system  of  philosophy,  this  adjustment  is  ultimate,  while 
the  other  system  of  philosophy  maintains  that  it  is  but  a 
means  to  an  end  and  that  the  ultimate  end  of  all  life  and 
of  all  human  striving  is  to  be  found  in  a  future  life.  Never- 
theless, these  two  schools  maintain  with  equal  force  that 
it  is  the  business  of  education  to  adjust  the  child  to  earthly 
environments,  to  the  social  institutions  in  which  he  must 
act  his  part.  The  child  must  be  fitted  for  effective  citizen- 
ship. He  must  be  rendered  worthy  to  take  his  place  in 
the  home.  And  to  these  two  the  Church  would  add 
the  further  demand  that  he  be  properly  prepared  for 
membership  within  her  fold.  It  should  be  further  noted 
that  there  is  no  conflict  between  these  various  adjust- 
ments, since  the  more  perfectly  the  individual  is  adjusted 
to  the  life  of  the  state  and  the  life  of  the  home  the  more 
worthy  he  will  be  of  membership  in  the  Church.  The 
Church  adds  to  what  is  demanded  by  the  state  and  the 
home.  And  the  Christian  philosopher  makes  the  further 
claim  that  through  this  very  addition  the  preceding  adjust- 
ments are  rendered  more  secure  and  more  perfect. 


Part  I 

The  Nature  of  the  Educative  Process 


CHAPTER  II 
PHYSICAL  Ai< D  SOCIAL  HEREDITY 

Notwithstanding  the  spiritual  life  of  which  he  is  the  for- 
tunate possessor,  man  is  still  an  animal  and  as  such,  in 
common  with  all  the  other  higher  annuals,  he  comes  into 
the  world  endowed  by  his  ancestors  with  a  definite  physical 
heritage,  which  includes,  in  addition  to  a  definite  morpho- 
logical structure,  certain  fixed  modes  of  activity  such  as 
automatic  acts,  reflexes  and  instincts.  These  modes  of 
activity,  however,  while  essential  to  the  maintenance  of  his 
animal  nature,  are  unable  to  carry  him  beyond  its  confines. 

The  older  and  more  deep-seated  of  these  animal  modes 
of  activity  are  as  fully  developed  in  man  and  as  fixed  in 
character  as  they  are  in  any  of  the  higher  animals.  Man 
does  not  learn  through  his  experience  or  through  his  intel- 
ligence how  to  digest  his  food  or  how  to  free  his  blood  from 
the  various  waste  matters  which  are  derived  from  the 
functions  of  the  organism.  But  it  is  otherwise  with  man  in 
his  instinctive  activities.  He  is  born  into  the  world  with 
an  instinctive  equipment  which  is  little  more  than  rudi- 
mentary and  which  is  barely  sufficient  to  carry  him  for- 
ward to  such  a  stage  of  his  individual  development  as  will 
permit  his  experience  and  his  intelligence  to  come  to  his 
assistance. 

The  young  oriole  who  has  never  witnessed  the  process 
of  nest-building  will,  when  the  proper  time  comes,  build  his 
nest  in  practically  the  same  manner  that  all  other  orioles 
build  their  nests.  The  beaver  exhibits  great  skill  in  build- 
ing his  dam,  but  the  skill  is  born  with  him:  it  comes  in 
no  part  from  his  experience  or  through  imitation  of  other 
beavers.  In  fact  of  the  mere  animal  in  any  stage  of  his 

35 


36  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

development,  it  may  be  said  with  truth  that  "the  design 
laid  in  heredity  is  the  only  one  that  can  be  worked  out  in 
actuality.  The  actual  is  only  a  realized  copy  of  the  poten- 
tial. It  is  true,  the  potential  is  drawn  in  rather  broad  lines, 
thus  permitting  the  necessary  degree  of  adaptation;  to  this 
extent  the  individual  is  plastic."1 

Had  Dr.  Bobbitt  applied  these  words  to  the  mere  animal, 
no  man  acquainted  with  the  fundamental  laws  of  life  would 
question  his  statement.  But  even  those  who  are  disposed 
to  deny  to  man  a  spiritual  nature  are  compelled  by  the 
facts  in  the  case  to  reject  this  statement  when  applied  to 
him.  The  undeveloped  state  of  his  instincts  renders  him 
eminently  plastic  and  makes  social  inheritance  both  possi- 
ble and  necessary. 

From  one  point  of  view  the  absence  of  fully  developed 
and  fixed  instinctive  modes  of  activity  is  a  disadvantage. 
It  necessitates  a  long  period  of  helpless  dependence.  The 
young  of  the  human  species  must  put  forth  active  efforts 
during  many  years  in  order  to  acquire  modes  of  activity 
which  exist  fully  developed  in  his  parents,  whereas  the 
young  animal  without  any  effort  on  his  part  inherits  the 
fully  developed  adult  modes  of  activity. 

These  disadvantages,  however,  are  more  than  counter- 
balanced in  the  human  infant.  It  will  be  noted,  in  the  first 
place,  that  the  animal  inherits  from  his  direct  ancestors 
only,  whereas  the  modes  of  activity  to  be  established  in  the 
human  infant  through  education  reflect  the  riches  and  the 
experience  of  the  entire  race.  Secondly,  the  animal  inher- 
its modes  of  activity  which  have  been  called  forth  to  meet 
conditions  of  the  past.  These  modes  of  activity,  moreover, 
are  so  fixed  and  rigid  as  to  render  the  changes  in  them 

1  Bobbitt  Proceedings  of  the  Child  Conference  for  Research  and 
Welfare,  New  York,  1909,  V.  1.  p.  74. 


PHYSICAL  AND   SOCIAL  HEREDITY  37 

needed  to  secure  an  adjustment  to  new  and  present  envir- 
onment a  slow  and  difficult  process.  The  human  infant, 
on  the  contrary,  is  enabled  to  build  up  the  new  adjustments 
to  present  environmental  conditions  in  the  light  of  his  own 
experience  and  in  the  light  of  the  experience  and  wisdom 
of  the  race,  without  being  hampered  by  an  inherited  rig- 
idity in  the  modes  of  his  activity.  He  is  thus  enabled  to 
meet  and  to  conquer  such  a  rapidly  changing  environment 
as  would  promptly  cause  the  extinction  of  any  other  known 
form  of  animal  life.  Thirdly,  the  completeness  of  the  ani- 
mal's instinctive  inheritance  and  its  rigidity  impose  rigor- 
ous limits  upon  the  development  of  its  conscious  life, 
whereas  the  inchoate  or  vestigial  instincts  of  the  human 
infant  leave  room  for  a  complex  and  extensive  development 
in  its  conscious  life.  The  conduct  of  the  higher  animal  is 
governed  throughout  life  almost  wholly  by  instinct.  Such 
modifications  as  may  be  induced  in  the  modes  of  its  activ- 
ity by  individual  experience  or  by  imitation  are  compara- 
tively insignificant.  The  converse  of  this  is  true  of  man. 
His  conduct  in  the  early  days  of  infancy  is  indeed  almost 
wholly  governed  by  instinct,  but  as  he  grows  toward  adult 
life,  he  learns  to  depend  more  and  more  completely  upon 
his  experience,  upon  his  intelligence  and  upon  the  rich 
social  inheritance  which  he  gradually  acquires.  In  a  word, 
the  incompleteness  of  the  human  infant's  physical  heredity 
renders  it  possible  for  him  to  come  into  possession  of  a 
social  inheritance  which  is  of  incalculably  greater  value 
than  the  elements  of  physical  heredity  which  in  his  case 
have  been  omitted. 

The  human  infant  is  born  without  social  inheritance  but 
he  is  born  with  an  indefeasible  right  to  it.  It  is  the  duty 
of  society  to  transmit  to  each  child  born  into  the  world  the 
social  inheritance  which  it  holds  in  trust  for  him.  The 


38  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

welfare  of  society  itself,  no  less  than  the  welfare  of  the  in- 
dividual, depends  upon  the  fidelity  and  the  effectiveness 
with  which  this  sacred  duty  is  performed.  Primitive 
peoples  recognized  this  truth  long  before  they  were  able  to 
formulate  it  in  philosophy.  As  so  frequently  happens,  the 
wisdom  of  their  actions  runs  far  in  advance  of  the  wisdom 
of  their  theory.  As  man  emerges  into  civilized  life,  we  find 
him  everywhere  seeking  to  organize  and  to  perfect  educa- 
tional agencies  for  the  more  effective  transmission  to  the 
young  of  the  social  heritage,  and  his  advance  in  civilization 
is  measured  by  his  success  in  this  enterprise. 

President  Butler,  speaking  of  the  possessions  which  the 
race  holds  in  trust  for  each  child  says:  "Those  spiritual 
possessions  may  be  variously  classified,  but  they  certainly 
are  at  least  five-fold.  The  child  is  entitled  to  his  scientific 
inheritance,  to  his  literary  inheritance,  to  his  aesthetic 
inheritance,  to  his  institutional  inheritance,  and  to  his 
religious  inheritance.  Without  them  all  he  cannot  become 
a  truly  educated  or  a  truly  cultivated  man."1 

Under  these  five  heads  may  be  conveniently  grouped  the 
sum  total  of  the  content  of  education  but  the  terms,  in 
order  to  serve  this  end,  must  be  used  in  a  much  wider  sense 
than  that  usually  attributed  to  them.  By  science,  in  this 
classification,  is  meant  the  child's  adjustment  to  the  physi- 
cal world  into  which  he  is  born.  By  letters  is  meant  the 
total  content  of  human  speech,  whether  spoken  or  written. 
A  similar  extension  must  be  granted  to  the  other  three 
terms  in  question.  Once  this  is  understood,  it  becomes  im- 
mediately evident  that  from  one  point  of  view,  at  least, 
education  may  be  regarded  as  the  transmission  by  society 
to  each  individual  child  of  the  five-fold  spiritual  inherit- 
ance which  it  holds  in  trust  for  him.  But  it  is  equally  evi- 

1  The  Meaning  of  Education,  New  York,  1915,  p.  25. 


PHYSICAL  AND   SOCIAL   HEREDITY  39 

dent  that  the  mere  transmission  of  this  heritage  is  not,  and 
cannot  be,  the  ultimate  aim  in  education.  Society  in  its 
educational  activities,  as  in  all  its  other  activities,  aims  pri- 
marily not  at  benefiting  the  individual  but  at  benefiting 
society.  Society  transmits  to  the  individual  his  five-fold 
inheritance,  but  it  does  so  to  the  end  that  the  individual 
may  become  a  more  efficient  member  of  society.  To  bene- 
fit the  individual  is,  as  far  as  society  is  concerned,  second- 
ary, and  it  must  always  remain  so. 

This  aspect  of  the  problem  is  well  stated  in  the  opening 
chapter  of  the  Epitome  of  President  Hall's  Educational 
Writings:1  "Man  is  as  yet  incomplete;  it  is  likely  that  all 
his  best  experiences  still  lie  before  him.  He  may  indeed 
be  only  at  the  beginning  of  a  career,  the  end  of  which  we 
cannot  foresee.  If  this  be  true,  the  function  of  the  present 
generation  is  to  prepare  for  the  next  step.  It  must  so  live 
that  it  may  become  the  best  possible  transmitter  of  hered- 
ity, and  to  the  greatest  degree  of  which  it  is  capable,  it  must 
add  to  the  equipment  of  the  new  generation.  The  effi- 
ciency with  which  these  functions  are  performed  is  the  test 
of  the  value  of  society,  of  education,  and  of  all  public  insti- 
tutions and  private  morality.  All  are  best  judged  accord- 
ing to  the  service  they  perform  in  advancing  the  interests 
of  mankind. 

"Immediately  the  old  ethical  problem  of  the  conflict  be- 
tween self  interest  and  service  comes  to  light.  Is  life  de- 
voted to  the  welfare  of  humanity  entirely  a  life  of  self-sac- 
rifice? What  place  is  there  in  such  an  ideal  for  the  private 
interests  of  the  individual?  We  shall  find  that,  on  the 
evolutionary  view,  the  welfare  of  the  individual  corre- 
sponds, in  great  measure,  to  that  of  the  race,  but  that  be- 
yond this  common  good  there  is  a  sphere  of  self  interest, 

1  Partridge,  Genetic  Philosophy  of  Education,  New  York,  1912,  p.  S. 


40  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

to  live  in  which  is  to  rob  the  future  of  its  rights.  It  is  the 
problem  of  education  to  develop  the  individual  to  precisely 
that  stage  of  completeness  at  which  he  can  most  success- 
fully live  hi  the  service  of  humanity,  and  at  the  same  time 
enjoy  a  normal  healthy  life;  and  so  to  inspire  the  young 
with  love  for  humanity,  and  so  to  educate  their  instincts 
and  ideals  that,  when  the  rights  of  the  individual  and  of 
the  race  come  into  conflict,  the  right  of  the  race  shall 
always  be  given  precedence.  Education  of  the  young,  thus 
understood,  is  plainly  not  only  the  most  moral  and  vital 
work  we  do,  but  the  most  inclusive;  for  in  a  sense  it  in- 
volves all  other  practical  activities.  Nothing  else  requires 
so  profound  knowledge,  nor  so  earnest  thought,  as  the 
training  of  the  child." 

There  does  not  appear  any  reason  why  this  statement 
might  not  be  accepted  at  its  face  value  by  any  Christian 
educator.  But  Christian  philosophy  would  carry  the 
thought  one  step  further  by  adding  to  the  worth  of  the  in- 
dividual as  a  member  of  an  earthly  society  his  worth  as  a 
child  of  God  and  as  a  member  of  the  kingdom  which  en- 
dureth  forever.  Moreover,  the  Christian  religion  does,  hi 
fact,  furnish  the  only  motive  which  is  permanently  effective 
in  moving  the  individual  at  all  times  to  subordinate  his 
individual  interests  to  the  interest  of  society  which  he 
sees  to  be  at  the  same  time  the  interest  of  his  Heavenly 
Father. 

The  recipient  of  the  five-fold  spiritual  inheritance  of  the 
race  must  not  hold  it  as  a  thing  apart  from  himself  in  the 
manner  hi  which  he  holds  the  temporal  goods  bequeathed 
to  him  by  his  ancestors.  He  must  receive  it  as  a  vital  in- 
heritance which  is  to  be  incorporated  into  his  life  and  by 
means  of  which  he  himself  is  to  be  transformed  in  every 
fiber  of  his  conscious  life,  and  by  which  his  spirit  is  to  be 


PHYSICAL  AND   SOCIAL  HEREDITY  41 

redeemed  from  the  trammels  of  his  animal  inheritance. 
Through  this  spiritual  inheritance  he  is  to  be  born  again  as 
a  member  of  civilized  society  and  this,  in  turn,  implies  a 
transition  from  didactic  to  organic  methods  on  the  part  of 
the  teacher.  The  five-fold  spiritual  inheritance  must  be 
administered  to  the  child's  soul  as  food  is  administered  to 
his  body. 

This  is  a  familiar  thought  in  modern  education,  owing  to 
the  widespread  diffusion  in  recent  years  of  biological  con- 
cepts, but  the  thought  did  not  originate  in  our  day.  We 
find  it  expressed  in  the  first  page  of  the  Gospel:  "Not  in 
bread  alone  doth  man  live,  but  in  every  word  that  pro- 
ceedeth  from  the  mouth  of  God."1  Throughout  His  pub- 
lic life  Christ  frequently  refers  to  the  truth  which  He 
brought  from  heaven  as  the  food  of  man's  spiritual  life: 
"Amen,  Amen,  I  say  to  you;  Moses  gave  you  not  bread 
from  heaven,  but  My  Father  giveth  you  the  true  bread 
from  heaven.  For  the  bread  of  God  is  that  which  cometh 
down  from  heaven,  and  giveth  life  to  the  world."2  And 
His  commission  to  Peter  was  in  the  same  terminology: 
"Feed  My  lambs;  feed  My  Sheep." 

It  is  true  that  Christ  in  these  passages  referred  not  to  the 
social  inheritance  gradually  acquired  through  the  experi- 
ence and  the  striving  of  the  race,  but  to  that  higher  inherit- 
ance of  revealed  truth  which,  in  the  providential  scheme, 
was  designed  to  minister  to  the  supernatural  life  in  the 
souls  of  men,  the  life  into  which  His  followers  were  to  be 
"born  again  of  water  and  the  Holy  Ghost."  For  the  trans- 
mission of  this  inheritance,  Christ  established  the  greatest 
teaching  agency  that  the  world  has  ever  known  when  He 
said  to  His  Apostles: "Going  therefore,  teach  ye  all  nations; 

1Matt.  iv.  4.    Deut.  viii,  3. 
'John  vi,  32. 


42  PHILOSOPHY   OF   EDUCATION 

baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Teaching  them  to  observe  all 
things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you:  and  behold  I 
am  with  you  all  days,  even  to  the  consummation  of  the 
world."1 

It  was  naturaland  inevitable  that  the  Church  should 
concern  herself  with  the  transmission  not  only  of  revealed 
truth  but  of  all  the  social  inheritance  of  the  race.  The 
Apostles  were  warned  against  casting  their  pearls  before 
swine.  Revealed  truth  and  divine  grace  were  not  to  be 
given  to  animals  but  to  human  beings  destined  by  the 
Heavenly  Father  to  live  in  society  as  brothers,  as  children 
of  a  common  Father.  Whatever,  therefore,  tends  to  lift 
man's  spirit  into  power,  whatever  tends  to  develop  the 
bonds  of  love  between  man  and  man  must  concern  those 
who  were  charged  with  the  task  of  feeding  the  lambs  and 
feeding  the  sheep  of  the  flock. 

The  Church  conceived  of  her  work  of  education  in  a 
broader  and  a  higher,  as  well  as  in  a  truer,  spirit  than  edu- 
cation was  ever  conceived  of  by  the  philosophers  of  Greece 
or  Rome,  or  by  modern  naturalistic  philosophers.  She 
does  not  and  cannot  regard  man's  social  inheritance  as  split 
into  two  portions,  one  of  which  is  to  be  transmitted  by 
her  while  the  other  portion  is  to  reach  her  children  through 
other  channels.  The  inheritance  which  she  seeks  to  trans- 
mit is  one  and  indivisible,  although  its  aspects  are  many. 
It  is  the  divinely  appointed  food  supplied  by  the  Heavenly 
Father  and  entrusted  to  her  for  the  little  ones  of  the  flock. 

To  understand  her  viewpoint,  it  will  be  well  to  look  at 
the  five-fold  spiritual  inheritance  under  the  aspect  of  so 
many  essential  elements  of  a  normal  food  supply  for  the 
conscious  life  of  the  Christian  ma  u. 


1  Matt,  xxviii,  19-20. 


PHYSICAL  AND   SOCIAL   HEREDITY  43 

In  addition  to  minute  quantities  of  other  elements,  the 
food  for  man's  body  consists  of  four  elements:  carbon, 
nitrogen,  oxygen  and  hydrogen.  If  any  one  of  these  four 
elements  be  wholly  omitted,  the  diet  is  insufficient,  no  mat- 
ter in  what  quantities  the  other  three  elements  may  be 
present.  Not  only  must  the  four  elements  be  present,  but 
they  must  be  present  in  due  proportion,  otherwise  the  diet 
is  not  adequate  to  the  needs  of  the  organism. 

In  like  manner,  we  may  analyze  the  sources  of  man's 
mental  food  and  by  so  doing  reach  a  more  just  estimate  of 
that  which  education  has  to  transmit  than  by  considering 
it  under  the  aspect  of  its  five-fold  spiritual  inheritance, 
which  too  often  suggests  external  possessions  such  as  lands 
or  moneys. 

Mental life* JajGPJWBXQn  with  all  other  forms  of  life,  grows 
by  what  it  feeds. upon..  Now  the  food  required  for  the 
nourishment  and  development  of  man's  conscious  life  is  to 
be  found  in  the  folio  whig  four  sources:  first,  in  the  truth 
and  beauty  and  goodness  of  the  Creator  as  reflected  in  na- 
ture; secondly,  in  the  direct  revelation  of  the  truth  and 
beauty  and  goodness  of  God  that  reaches  the  individual 
through  revealed  religion;  third,  in  art  regarded  as  the  con- 
crete embodiment  of  human  thought  and  action;  fourth, 
in  the  manifestations  of  the  human  mind  and  heart  that 
reach  the  individual  through  the  arbitrary  symbols  of 
speech. 

All  that  man  learns  through  the  entire  educative  process 
may  be  found  in  these  four  sources.  Moreover,  it  is  essen- 
tial for  the  nutrition  and  normal  development  of  human 
life  that  no  one  of  these  four  elements  of  man's  mental 
food  be  omitted.  The  relations  of  these  sources  to  each 
other  and  the  unity  which  underlies  them  may  be  illus- 
trated by  the  following  diagram: 


44  PHILOSOPHY  OP  EDUCATION 

f  Nature 

Revelation 
God- 

f  Art 
Man 

[  Language 

God  is  here  represented  as  the  single  source  of  the  four 
mental  food  elements.  He  is  at  once  the  author  of  man's 
being  and  the  ultimate  source  of  all  that  ministers  to  his 
life  and  to  his  development.  He  reveals  Himself  to  man 
directly  through  nature  and  through  revelation,  and  indi- 
rectly He  also  reveals  Himself  to  every  child  born  into  the 
world  through  man's  works  and  through  man's  thoughts  as 
expressed  in  human  speech. 

Apart  from  its  onomatopoetic  elements,  human  speech 
has  no  power  to  convey  thought  elements;  its  function 
is  to  convey  directions  for  the  manipulation  of  thought 
elements  previously  derived  from  sentient  experience. 
Hence,  whatever  may  have  been  the  case  with  primitive 
man,  human  speech  today  is  meaningless  when  it  trans- 
cends the  limit  of  concrete  experience.  Language,  there- 
fore, of  itself  and  apart  from  the  other  sources  can  no 
more  nourish  the  mind  than  nitrogen  alone,  apart  from  the 
other  chemical  elements,  can  nourish  his  body.  In  like 
manner,  revelation  has  no  meaning  apart  from  nature  and 
from  the  concrete  results  of  human  thought  and  action. 
Nature  precedes  revelation  even  as  the  concrete  embodi- 
ment of  human  thought  precedes  human  language.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  nature,  apart  from  revelation  and  from 
human  thought  conveyed  through  language,  would  have 
little  meaning  and  little  value  to  any  child  of  man.  With- 
out the  aid  which  is  supplied  through  human  speech  and 


PHYSICAL  AND   SOCIAL   HEREDITY  45 

through  divine  revelation,  man  forever  stumbles  and  fails  to 
comprehend  the  truth  that  is  embodied  in  his  physical 
environment,  whether  directly  by  nature  or  by  man.  The 
child  from  whom  human  speech  in  all  its  forms  is  excluded, 
no  matter  how  vigorous  his  brain  or  how  complete  and 
perfect  his  animal  inheritance,  could  obtain  little  knowl- 
edge of  the  meaning  of  natural  phenomena  or  of  the 
meaning  of  the  various  monuments  which  man  has  left  on 
the  face  of  the  earth. 

From  this  point  of  view,  may  be  seen  something  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  disaster  that  has  overtaken  state' 'educa- 
tion in  this  country,  through  the  well-meaning,  but  com- 
promising and  secularizing  spirit  which  has  banished  from 
our  state  schools  both  God  and  divine  revelation.  In- 
stead of  the  normal  food  in  its  four-fold  unity  for  the  con- 
scious life  of  man  which  the  Church  has  supplied  to  her 
children  for  two  thousand  years,  the  state  offers  only  scat- 
tered fragments  which  may  be  represented  thus: 

Nature. 


/Art. 
i<, 


Man<T 

^Language. 

The  loss  is  even  greater  than  this  diagram  portrays,  be- 
cause man's  advancement  in  the  past  in  all  the  fields  of  his 
endeavor  was  inspired  and  guided  by  the  thought  of  God 
and  by  the  teachings  of  revealed  religion.  It  was  religion 
that  built  the  ancient  temples.  It  was  religion  that 
guided  the  chisel  of  Praxiteles  and  the  brush  of  Phidias. 
Without  religion  as  the  key,  Homer,  the  Vedas,  the  Psalms 
of  David  and  the  literature  of  all  the  ancient  world  be- 
comes a  series  of  meaningless  sounds.  Without  religion, 
the  Divina  Commedia  and  Paradise  Lost  are  quite  unin- 
telligible to  any  mind.  Verily,  it  is  difficult  to  banish  God 


46  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

from  His  world,  and  the  consequences  of  all  attempts  to  do 
so  are  unqualified  disaster.  Without  Him  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments cease  to  have  any  binding  force  other  than  the 
will  of  the  majority.  Without  Him,  home  loses  its  sanc- 
tity, marriage  its  stability,  and  woman  the  high  position 
by  man's  side  accorded  her  by  Christianity.  Without 
Him,  the  newly  born  infant  forfeits  its  right  to  live  and  the 
suffering  their  claim  upon  human  sympathy.  Without 
Him,  man  ceases  to  look  upon  his  fellow  man  as  his  brother 
and  regards  him  as  his  rival  and  his  enemy.  Without  Him, 
the  ethical  everywhere  gives  place  to  the  biological  in  the 
struggle  for  existence  and  man  takes  his  place  on  the  same 
,"  plane  as  the  brute.  Without  Him  justice,  and  mercy 
yield  to  physical  force  in  the  conduct  of  life,  and  all  that 
is  highest  and  best  in  the  world,  all  that  Jesus  Christ 
brought  into  the  world  and  willed  to  transmit  to  all  peoples 
through  his  Church,  ceases  to  exist. 

It  has  ever  been  the  purpose  of  Christian  education  to 
give  to  each  child  an  adequate  food  supply  for  his  conscious 
life  derived  from  nature  and  revelation,  from  art  and  hu- 
man speech.  The  development  of  Western  civilization 
has  witnessed  many  changes  of  estimate  in  the  relative 
importance  of  the  truths  to  be  derived  from  these  four 
sources.  The  Christian  in  the  Catacombs,  the  hermit  in 
the  desert,  the  mystic  in  his  cell,  neglected  the  other 
sources  of  truth  in  order  to  devote  themselves  wholly  to 
the  truths  of  the  spiritual  Kingdom.  Averroes,  Avicenna 
and  Abelard  are  representatives  of  a  movement  which  at- 
tached supreme  importance  to  the  speculations  of  human 
reason.  The  Scholastic  movement  concerned  itself  with 
the  reconciliation  between  revelation  and  reason.  Giotto, 
Michael  Angelo  and  Raphael  bear  witness  to  the  deep  in- 
terest of  their  times  in  the  artistic  embodiment  of  the  Chris- 


PHYSICAL  AND   SOCIAL  HEREDITY  47 

tian  ideals  of  beauty,  while  the  Humanistic  movement  laid 
its  chief  emphasis  on  literary  expression.  The  last  century 
witnessed  an  unprecedented  development  of  the  physical 
and  natural  sciences,  while  the  practical  applications  of 
these  sciences  in  our  own  day  touch  human  life  in  so  many 
ways  that  they  fill  the  imagination  and  absorb  the  mind 
of  the  student. 


CHAPTER  III 
FROM  THE  STATIC  TO  THE  DYNAMIC 

The  most  significant  change  manifesting  itself  in  the 
modern  world  is,  perhaps,  the  shifting  of  the  center  of 
man's  interest  in  all  things  from  the  static  to  the  dynamic. 
This  change  is  of  peculiar  importance  in  the  field  of 
education.  It  calls  for  the  reformulation  of  the  functions 
of  all  educational  agencies.  This  is  well  illustrated  in  the 
change  which  it  has  brought  about  in  our  conception  of  the 
functions  of  the  teacher. 

To  find  truth  in  its  four-fold  source  and  to  present  it  to 
the  pupil  in  a  form  suited  to  his  capacity  has  long  been 
regarded  as  one  of  the  chief  functions  of  the  teacher. 

This  function  may  be  performed  in  various  ways.  The 
teacher  may  take  the  rose-bush,  clothed  with  its  fragrant 
blossoms,  and  analyze  it  for  his  pupils;  he  may  point 
out  its  root  and  stem,  its  branch  and  leaf  and  blossom; 
he  may  call  attention  to  the  number  and  color  of  its 
petals,  to  its  perfume,  to  the  shape  and  structure  of  its 
leaves,  to  its  rind  and  vascular  bundles  and  flowing  sap; 
he  may  compare  it  with  others  of  its  kind  and  indicate 
the  resemblances  and  differences  of  structure  in  the 
various  members  of  the  group.  In  all  this  he  is  teaching 
things  as  they  are,  as  if  they  were  something  fixed,  sta- 
tionary or  static.  His  method  is  didactic.  He  analyzes 
the  whole  into  its  parts  as  one  might  dissect  a  dead  body 
to  discover  the  relationship  of  parts  in  the  structure 
that  had  once  served  to  perform  the  functions  of  life. 

The  rise  of  the  scientific  spirit  in  our  day,  and  more 
particularly  the  development  of  the  biological  and  psycho- 

48 


FROM   THE   STATIC   TO   THE   DYNAMIC  49 

logical  sciences,  demands  a  radical  change  in  our  methods 
of  teaching.  In  the  face  of  this  demand,  didactic  methods 
are  yielding  to  organic  methods  in  the  structure  of  text- 
books no  less  than  in  the  work  of  the  teacher.  The 
spirit  of  this  change  may  be  aptly  illustrated  by  a  page  of 
a  popular  lecture  delivered  more  than  two  decades  ago 
by  a  protagonist  of  the  newer  methods:1 

"There  is  a  delightful  child's  story,  known  by  the  title 
of  'Jack  and  the  Bean-Stalk,'  with  which  my  contem- 
poraries who  are  present  will  be  familiar.  But  so  many 
of  our  grave  and  reverend  juniors  have  been  brought  up 
on  severer  intellectual  diet,  and,  perhaps,  have  become 
acquainted  with  fairy-land  only  through  primers  of  com- 
parative mythology,  that  it  may  be  needful  to  give  an 
outline  of  the  tale.  It  is  a  legend  of  a  bean-plant, 
which  grows  and  grows  until  it  reaches  the  high 
heavens  and  there  spreads  out  into  a  vast  canopy 
of  foliage.  The  hero,  being  moved  to  climb  the  stalk, 
discovers  that  the  leafy  expanse  supports  a  world 
composed  of  the  same  elements  as  that  below,  but  yet 
strangely  new;  and  his  adventures  there,  on  which  I  may 
not  dwell,  must  have  completely  changed  his  views  of 
the  nature  of  things;  though  the  story,  not  having  been 
composed  by,  or  for,  philosophers,  has  nothing  to  say 
about  views. 

"My  present  enterprise  has  a  certain  analogy  to  that 
of  the  daring  adventurer.  I  beg  you  to  accompany  me 
in  an  attempt  to  reach  a  world  which,  to  many,  is  probably 
strange,  by  the  help  of  a  bean.  It  is,  as  you  know,  a 
simple,  inert-looking  thing.  Yet,  if  planted  under  proper 
conditions,  of  which  sufficient  warmth  is  one  of  the  most 
important,  it  manifests  active  powers  of  a  very  remarkable 

1  Huxley,  Evolution  and  Ethics.  New  York,  1894,  p.  46  S. 


50  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

kind.  A  small  green  seedling  emerges,  rises  to  the 
surface  of  the  soil,  rapidly  increases  in  size  and,  at  the 
same  time,  undergoes  a  series  of  metamorphoses  which 
do  not  excite  our  wonder  as  much  as  those  which  meet 
us  in  legendary  history,  merely  because  they  are  to  be 
seen  every  day  and  all  day  long. 

"By  insensible  steps,  the  plant  builds  itself  up  into  a 
large  and  various  fabric  of  root,  stem,  leaves,  flowers,  and 
fruit,  every  one  moulded  within  and  without  in  accordance 
with  an  extremely  complex,  but,  at  the  same  time,  minutely 
defined  pattern.  In  each  of  these  complicated  structures, 
as  in  their  smallest  constituents,  there  is  an  imminent 
energy  which,  in  harmony  with  that  resident  in  all  the 
others,  incessantly  works  towards  the  maintenance  of  the 
whole,  and  the  efficient  performance  of  the  part  which  it 
has  to  play  in  the  economy  of  nature.  But  no  sooner  has 
the  edifice,  reared  with  such  exact  elaboration,  attained 
completeness,  than  it  begins  to  crumble.  By  degrees, 
the  plant  withers  and  disappears  from  view,  leaving 
behind  more  or  fewer  apparently  inert  and  simple  bodies, 
just  like  the  bean  from  which  it  sprang;  and,  like  it,  en- 
dowed with  the  potentiality  of  giving  rise  to  a  similar 
cycle  of  manifestations. 

"Neither  the  poetic  nor  the  scientific  imagination  is  put 
to  much  strain  in  the  search  after  analogies  with  this 
process  of  going  forth  and,  as  it  were,  returning  to  the 
starting  point.  It  may  be  likened  to  the  ascent  and 
descent  of  a  slung  stone,  or  the  course  of  an  arrow  along 
its  trajectory.  Or  we  may  say  that  the  living  energy 
takes  first  an  upward  and  then  a  downward  road.  Or 
it  may  seem  preferable  to  compare  the  expansion  of  the 
germ  into  the  full-grown  plant,  to  the  unfolding  of  a  fan, 
or  to  the  rolling  forth  and  widening  of  a  stream;  and  thus 


FROM   THE  STATIC   TO   THE   DYNAMIC  51 

to  arrive  at  the  conception  of  'development'  or  'evolution.' 
Here,  as  elsewhere,  names  are  'noise  and  smoke;'  the 
important  point  is  to  have  a  clear  and  adequate  concep- 
tion of  the  fact  signified  by  a  name.  And,  in  this  case, 
the  fact  is  the  Sisyphaean  process,  in  the  course  of  which, 
the  living  and  growing  plant  passes  from  the  relative 
simplicity  and  latent  potentiality  of  the  seed  to  the  full 
epiphany  of  a  highly  differentiated  type,  thence  to  fall 
back  to  simplicity  and  potentiality. 

"The  value  of  a  strong  intellectual  grasp  of  the  nature 
of  this  process  lies  in  the  circumstance  that  what  is  true 
of  the  bean  is  true  of  living  things  in  general.  From  very 
low  forms  up  to  the  highest — in  the  animal  no  less  than 
in  the  vegetable  kingdom — the  process  of  life  presents  the 
same  appearence  of  cyclical  evolution.  Nay,  we  have 
but  to  cast  our  eyes  over  the  rest  of  the  world  and  cyclical 
change  presents  itself  on  all  sides.  It  meets  us  in  the 
water  that  flows  to  the  sea  and  returns  to  the  springs; 
in  the  heavenly  bodies  that  wax  and  wane,  go  and  return 
to  their  places;  in  the  inexorable  sequence  of  the  ages  of 
man's  life;  in  that  successive  rise,  apogee,  and  fall  of 
dynasties  and  of  states  which  is  the  most  prominent 
topic  of  civil  history." 

In  this  lesson  the  student's  interest  is  not  focused  upon 
the  static  elements  of  the  framework  of  life,  but  in  a 
definite  and  orderly  sequence  of  changes  and  in  the  causal 
force  that  lies  back  of  them.  The  facts  concerning  the 
bean  are  transformed  by  the  mind  in  this  process  into  a 
means  of  understanding  many  things  in  heaven  and  upon 
earth.  By  this  lesson,  the  teacher  aims  to  implant  in 
the  mind  a  germinal  thought  which  will  unfold,  in  due 
time,  into  a  world  of  useful  knowledge.  The  story  of 
the  bean  is  but  a  parable  which  is  used  to  lead  the  pupil 


52  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

into  an  understanding  of  the  cosmic  process,  and  both  of 
these  are  but  preliminaries,  in  this  particular  instance, 
to  an  understanding  of  human  life  which  the  teacher 
proceeds  to  develop  in  the  remaining  part  of  his  lecture. 
The  interest  throughout  is  in  the  dynamic  rather  than  in 
the  static. 

The  attitude  of  man's  mind  towards  the  problems  of 
nature  has  undergone  many  important  changes  in  modern 
times,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  which  is  the  shif  ting 
of  the  center  of  his  interest  from  the  static  to  the  dynamic. 
Formerly,  man  studied  all  objects  in  nature  as  if  they  had 
come  to  him  unchanged  from  the  hand  of  the  Creator; 
today  the  processes  through  which  these  objects  have 
come  to  be  what  they  are,  hold  the  chief  interest  of  all 
students  of  nature. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  this 
change  of  attitude  was  foreshadowed  in  the  Kant-Laplace 
theory  of  cosmic  evolution  and  in  the  philosophical  specu- 
lations of  Goethe,  Hegel  and  Schelling.  In  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century  it  took  on  a  more  concrete 
form  in  the  Lamarck  theory  of  organic  evolution.  A  little 
later,  Joule  and  the  physicists,  by  the  discovery  of  the 
mechanical  equivalent  of  heat,  led  the  way  to  the  larger 
discoveries  of  the  transformation  of  force  and  the  conserva- 
tion of  energy.  Still,  up  to  the  middle  of  the  last  century, 
this  change  of  mental  attitude  was  confined  within  very 
narrow  limits.  Newman's  "Development  of  Doctrine," 
Darwin's  "Origin  of  Species,"  and  the  work  of  such  men 
as  Spencer,  Huxley,  and  Wallace,  ushered  in  the  modern 
attitude. 

The  chemist  of  today  refuses  to  be  content  with  the 
knowledge  of  the  elements  which  enter  into  a  chemical 
reaction  and  with  a  knowledge  of  the  products  which 


FROM  THE  STATIC  TO  THE  DYNAMIC  53 

issue  from  it.  He  has  learned  that  the  pathway  of  progress 
lies  through  the  processes  involved  in  the  chemical 
transformation.  The  geologist  refuses  to  be  content  with 
a  description  of  the  successive  layers  which  he  finds  in  the 
earth's  crust;  these  interest  him  only  in  so  far  as  they 
unfold  to  him  the  history  of  the  changes  through  which 
the  earth  has  passed.  The  naturalist  has  ceased  to  be 
absorbed  in  the  classification  of  fauna  and  flora,  and  has 
turned  his  attention  to  the  laws  of  heredity  and  to  the 
forces  which  have  produced  the  diversified  forms  of  life. 

Not  only  has  the  process  of  becoming  a  transcendent 
interest  in  itself,  but,  in  every  department  of  natural 
truth,  men  have  ceased  to  believe  that  they  can  understand 
things  as  they  are  until  they  have  first  traced  the  processes 
and  transformations  through  which  things  have  come  to 
be  what  they  are. 

"Nor  is  the  change  of  attitude  confined  to  the  shifting  of 
interest  in  the  domain  of  nature.  The  attitude  of  man's 
mind  towards  the  products  of  human  thought  and  human 
endeavor  has  recently  undergone  a  similar  deep-seated 
change  which  has  given  to  history  a  position  of  pre- 
dominant importance.  On  every  side  men  are  eagerly 
pursuing  the  history  of  all  things — of  language  and 
literature,  of  religion  and  philosophy,  of  science  and  art — 
and  yet  it  is  not  the  past  of  any  of  these  subjects  that 
holds  their  interest.  Their  interest  in  the  past  springs 
from  their  recognition  of  the  fact  that  a  knowledge  of  the 
past  is  indispensable  to  an  understanding  of  the  process  of 
becoming  in  which  they  seek  the  key  of  the  present  and 
the  indications  of  the  future. 

Formerly,  languages  were  studied  in  their  developed 
condition.  From  an  examination  of  the  usage  of  the  best 
authors,  rules  of  grammar  were  formulated  and  exceptions 


54  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

catalogued.  The  philologist  of  today  seeks  in  the  history 
of  language  the  laws  which  govern  its  development.  He 
studies  the  effect  of  accent  and  usage,  of  analogy  and 
phonetic  decay;  and,  as  a  result,  exceptions  disappear, 
the  present  condition  of  the  language  is  rendered  in- 
telligible, and  the  lines  of  its  future  development  are 
foreseen. 

In  like  manner,  the  student  of  literature  concerns  him- 
self with  the  movements  of  thought  and  with  the  environ- 
mental influences  which  find  expression  in  the  works  of 
the  masters.  The  theologian  and  the  philosopher  seek 
the  fuller  meaning  of  doctrines  in  the  history  of  their 
development.  The  student  of  political  and  institutional 
history  has  turned  his  attention  from  reigning  monarchs 
and  dynasties,  from  dates  of  battles  and  shifting  political 
boundaries,  to  the  social  and  economic  forces  which 
have  caused  the  rise  and  fall  of  kingdoms  and  of  empires, 
and  which  govern  the  development  of  our  social  institu- 
tions. In  the  domain  of  the  products  of  human  thought, 
as  in  the  realm  of  nature,  the  student's  center  of  interest 
has  shifted  from  the  static  to  the  dynamic. 

Nor  does  this  remarkable  change  end  here,  for  man's 
interest  in  the  pursuit  of  truth  is  inevitably  reflected  in 
his  activity.  The  everlasting  hills  spoke  to  him  of  an 
unchanging  world  and  he  sought  to  perpetuate  his  memory 
in  imperishable  monuments.  The  Pharaoh  housed  his 
embalmed  dead  in  the  enduring  pyramid;  the  Roman 
conqueror  brought  home  his  captives  and  the  spoils  of 
war  to  build  upon  the  seven  hills  an  eternal  city;  Michael 
Angelo  sought  in  the  quarries  of  Carrara  a  medium  that 
would  perpetuate  in  unchanged  form  the  visions  of 
beauty  which  filled  his  soul;  the  builders  of  the  Gothic 
cathedrals  turned  their  primeval  forests  into  changeless 


FROM   THE   STATIC   TO   THE   DYNAMIC  55 

stone,  while  the  poet's  dreams  are  perpetuated  in  the 
immortal  verse  of  the  Iliad  and  the  Aeneid,  the  Divina 
Commedia  and  the  Paradise  Lost. 

The  voices  of  Confucius  and  Buddha  held  the  civiliza- 
tions of  the  East  unchanged  throughout  the  slowly  lapsing 
centuries.  The  laws  given  amid  the  thunders  of  Sinai 
were  graven  on  tables  of  stone;  and  the  Scribe  and  the 
Pharisee  were  so  imbued  with  the  changeless  character 
of  their  laws  and  traditions  that  they  killed  the  Messiah, 
Who  came  to  liberate  them  from  "the  letter  of  the  law, 
that  killeth"  and  to  impart  to  them  "the  spirit  that 
giveth  life." 

Those  who  followed  in  the  Master's  footsteps  and 
understood  His  methods  were  incorporated  into  the 
Kingdom,  which  grew  and  developed  like  the  mustard 
seed  and  which  holds  the  secret  of  undying  life  in  its 
power  of  adjustment  to  a  changing  environment.  The 
history  of  Christian  civilization  is  a  record  of  the  trans- 
forming power  which  went  out  from  the  Kingdom  to 
regenerate  a  pagan  world  and  to  civilize  the  untutored 
savage;  but  it  was  not  until  modern  times  that  the  spirit 
of  this  change  from  the  static  to  the  dynamic  found  expres- 
sion in  man's  secular  pursuits. 

The  page  which  we  have  quoted  from  Huxley  is  illustra- 
tive of  the  spirit  of  modern  science  and  of  its  effect  upon 
modern  methods  of  teaching.  But  this  same  method,  in  a 
still  higher  degree  of  perfection,  was  employed  two  thou- 
sand years  ago  by  the  Master,  and  the  most  consistent 
illustration  of  it  is  still  to  be  found  in  the  pages  of  the 
Gospel:  "All  these  things  Jesus  spoke  in  parables  to  the 
multitudes:  and  without  parables  He  did  not  speak  to 
them."1  • 


1  Matt,  xiii,  34. 


56  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

Man  has,  in  fact,  been  very  slow  in  coming  to  a  full 
realization  of  the  meaning  of  this  change  in  the  object 
of  his  pursuits.  The  discoveries  of  gunpowder,  steam  and 
electricity  brought  with  them  no  immediate  intelligence 
of  the  changes  that  were  to  follow.  Gradually  man  has 
learned  how  to  make  the  forces  of  nature  obedient  to  his 
will.  The  thousand  slaves  propelling  a  Roman  trireme 
failed  to  secure  more  than  a  small  fraction  of  the  speed 
attained  by  a  modern  ocean  liner  driven  by  forces  which 
had  lain  hidden  for  ages  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth. 

Man  has  at  last  learned  to  shift  the  burden  from  his 
own  shoulders;  he  has  found  hi  the  forces  of  nature  agencies 
through  which  he  is  enabled  to  accomplish  results  un- 
dreamed of  in  the  past.  He  has  removed  the  last  battle- 
ments of  the  feudal  system  and  has  battered  down  the 
Great  Wall  of  China;  he  has  converted  the  oceans  into 
lakes  and  transformed  the  inaccessible  wildernesses  into 
busy  marts  of  trade;  he  has  dissolved  the  rigid  framework 
of  static  populations  and  has  mingled  the  peoples  of  the 
earth;  he  has  swept  industry  from  the  home  and  organized 
it  in  the  factory;  he  has  removed  from  individual  life 
the  compelling  force  of  local  custom  and  family  tradition 
and  has  caused  conduct  to  flow  from  the  wellspring  of 
individual  character;  he  has  found  in  the  very  changes 
against  which  he  has  battled  from  the  beginning  of  tune 
the  secret  of  a  larger  and  a  fuller  life. 

The  Western  world,  throbbing  with  the  lusty  vigor  of 
this  full-veined  life,  has  at  last  touched  the  Orient  and 
awakened  it  from  its  sleep  of  ages.  It  is  not  surprising, 
therefore,  that  in  every  field  of  human  activity  the  center 
of  interest  has  shifted  from  the  static  to  the  dynamic. 
And,  as  was  to  be  expected,  this  change  of  interest  in 
the  adult  world  soon  found  expression  in  the  world  of  the 
child's  life. 


FROM   THE  STATIC   TO   THE   DYNAMIC  57 

The  prevailing  currents  of  thought  in  the  adult  world 
find  their  way  into  the  schools  through  various  channels. 
The  progress  of  science  in  our  day  is  due,  in  no  small 
measure,  to  the  research  work  carried  on  by  university 
professors  and  by  students  under  their  direction.  Pupils 
in  the  university,  thus  formed  in  the  spirit  and  methods 
of  scientific  investigation,  recruit  the  faculties  of  colleges 
and  normal  schools,  where  the  teachers  of  elementary 
schools  and  high  schools  receive  their  training.  It  is 
through  this  channel  that  the  main  current  of  progress 
ultimately  reaches  and  modifies  the  work  of  all  schools. 
But  the  change  in  the  outer  world  can  reach  the  school 
in  more  direct  ways  than  this.  The  teacher  and  the 
pupil  are  influenced  in  many  ways  by  daily  contact  with 
the  men  and  women  who  are  actively  engaged  in  the 
struggle  for  existence. 

Moreover,  rightly  or  wrongly,  the  success  of  a  school  is 
often  measured  by  the  success  of  its  alumni  in  the  struggle 
for  existence.  In  this  circumstance  is  to  be  found  a  force 
which  compels  the  school  to  adjust  its  methods  to  the 
needs  and  conditions  of  the  outer  world,  and  no  school 
can  long  continue  to  exist  unless  it  performs  its  functions 
efficiently  and  sends  from  its  doors  men  and  women 
who  are  fully  equipped  for  the  battle  of  life. 

The  success  of  a  school  in  the  past  is  not  a  guarantee  of 
its  success  in  the  present  or  in  the  future.  Conformity 
to  a  fixed  type  was  the  condition  of  success  in  the  past; 
the  production  of  plastic  individuals  is  the  requirement 
of  the  present.  Formerly,  the  test  of  a  school's  worth 
was  to  be  found  in  the  rigid  adjustment  of  its  pupils  to 
static  social  and  economic  conditions;  the  test  today  is 
the  pupil's  power  of  adjustment  to  a  rapidly  changing 
social  and  economic  environment.  Docility  was  the 
measure  of  success  when  local  customs  and  family  tradi- 


58  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

tions  were  the  accepted  standard  of  conduct;  today  moral 
ruin  is  the  inevitable  fate  of  all  who  lack  the  strength  of 
character  to  battle  alone  with  the  storms  of  temptation 
and  passion.  The  accumulation  of  a  definite  stock  of 
information  may  have  sufficed  for  the  conditions  of  a 
static  world,  but  success  today  is  measured  by  the  power 
of  finding  truth  in  its  sources,  and  of  adapting  it  to  the 
problems  of  life  as  they  arise.  Formerly,  the  home  was 
the  seat  of  various  industries  which  provided  the  pupil 
with  the  objective  training  which  must  be  supplied  by  the 
school  of  today. 

Moreover,  the  horizon  of  natural  truth  has  been  so 
widened  through  the  recent  development  of  various 
sciences  that  the  teacher's  power  of  equipping  his  pupils 
with  the  knowledge  demanded  by  the  conditions  of  modern 
life  is  measured  by  his  ability  to  understand  and  to  control 
the  forces  in  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  pupil. 

In  the  school,  as  in  the  outer  world,  the  pathway  to  the 
knowledge  of  things  as  they  are  lies  through  the  processes 
by  which  things  have  come  to  be  what  they  are.  Where 
the  processes  of  human  thought  have  found  concrete 
embodiment,  the  development  of  thought  and  the  develop- 
ment of  its  external  embodiment  follow  the  same  lines. 
The  development  of  man's  thought  concerning  loco- 
motives, for  example,  is  reflected  in  the  successive  modi- 
fications through  which  the  locomotive  has  passed. 
By  beginning  with  the  first  locomotive  and  studying  each 
subsequent  modification  of  the  machine,  we  may  follow, 
step  by  step,  the  development  of  the  thought  and  the 
development  of  its  external  expression.  But  when  the 
objects  of  study  are  processes  in  nature  that  are  not 
subject  to  human  control,  the  case  is  otherwise. 

The  process  of  cosmic  evolution  and  the  development  of 


FROM   THE   STATIC   TO   THE   DYNAMIC  59 

human  thought  concerning  it  follow  lines  which  run  in 
opposite  directions.  Man's  knowledge  here  begins  with 
nature's  finished  product,  and,  step  by  step,  he  fights  his 
slow  way  back  towards  more  primitive  conditions  and 
underlying  causes. 

By  this  latter  procedure  the  frontiers  of  human  knowl- 
edge are  advanced.  We  are  here  dealing  with  the  adult 
student — with  the  investigator.  To  train  men  in  this 
procedure  is  the  specific  work  of  the  modern  university. 

In  elementary  and  intermediate  education  the  aim  is  to 
bring  the  pupil  in  a  few  years  over  ground  which  it  has 
taken  the  race  centuries  to  cover,  and  our  procedure  must 
be  modified  accordingly.  The  student  begins  with  the 
latest  secure  developments  of  science,  with  simple  condi- 
tions and  underlying  causes,  and  reconstructs,  mentally, 
nature's  developmental  phases.  In  nature,  as  hi  the  work 
of  man's  hand,  the  objective  sequence  should  determine 
the  order  of  imparting  knowledge,  but  the  converse  of 
this  is  true  of  the  methods  of  the  investigator.  He  must 
find,  in  the  history  of  science,  light  and  guidance  for  its 
further  development. 

The  process  of  education  in  the  mind  of  the  pupil 
presents  a  series  of  developmental  phases  which  is  pri- 
marily the  result  of  natural  forces  resident  partly  in  the 
brain  and  consciousness  of  the  pupil  and  partly  hi  his 
physical  environment;  but  this  series  of  phases  may  be 
modified,  and  to  a  limited  extent  it  may  be  controlled 
by  the  teacher.  The  process  of  cosmic  evolution  and  the 
process  of  mental  development  differ  from  each  other  in 
this  important  respect  that  the  former  is  hi  no  way 
modified  by  the  development  of  human  thought  concerning 
it,  while  the  development  of  the  child's  mind  and  char- 
acter may  be  modified  in  many  ways  by  the  views  on 


60  PHILOSOPHY  OF   EDUCATION 

education  which  are  held  by  parents  and  teachers, 
and  by  the  methods  which  they  employ.  The  teacher's 
attitude  is,  therefore,  a  factor  in  the  mental  development 
of  the  pupil;  and  a  knowledge  of  this  attitude,  which 
can  be  gained  only  through  the  history  of  education,  is 
rendered  necessary  to  a  full  understanding  of  the  process 
of  development  that  takes  place  in  the  mind  of  the  pupil. 
The  present  concept  and  method  of  education  are  a 
growth  and  outcome  of  the  past,  and  we  shall  understand 
them  fully  only  by  learning  what  has  been  their  history 
and  by  studying  the  influences  that  have  been  playing 
on  the  minds  of  the  teachers,  compelling  them  to  change 
their  methods.  In  the  days  when  the  static  absorbed 
man's  entire  interest,  the  problem  of  education  concerned 
itself  with  the  means  by  which  a  maximum  amount  of 
information  might  be  imparted  by  the  teacher  and 
absorbed  by  the  pupil;  today,  the  processes  of  growth  and 
development  in  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  pupil  have 
become  the  problems  of  all-absorbing  interest  to  educators. 
For,  indeed,  in  the  school,  as  in  the  adult  world,  the  center 
of  interest  has  shifted  from  the  static  to  the  dynamic. 


CHAPTER  IV 

EDUCATION  AS  ADJUSTMENT 

The  higher  animal  is  born  into  the  world  possessing 
instincts  which  determine  for  the  most  part  the  adjust- 
ment of  his  conduct  to  his  environment.  He  learns  but 
little  from  his  parents  or  from  the  other  members  of  his 
species.  The  converse  of  this  is  true  of  man.  With  the 
exception  of  the  early  days  of  infancy,  during  which  his 
conduct  is  wholly  controlled  by  native  instincts,  his 
progressive  adjustment  to  environment  is  largely  the 
result  of  education. 

Owing  to  the  incompleteness  of  his  physical  inheritance 
in  reflexes  and  instincts,  the  infant  remains  for  a  time 
peculiarly  helpless,  but  through  his  own  experience  and 
through  the  experience  of  others  he  soon  begins  to  modify 
his  instincts  and  to  build  up  new  modes  of  reaction  to  his 
environments.  This  process  of  modifying  instinct  and 
building  upon  it  new  adjustments  to  environment  is 
education  in  the  widest  sense  of  that  term.  The  term 
"education,"  however,  is  frequently  restricted  in  its 
meaning  to  the  process  of  adjusting  the  child  to  its  environ- 
ment in  so  far  as  it  is  deliberately  controlled  by  organized 
educative  agencies,  such  as  the  school,  the  church  and 
the  home;  and,  indeed,  the  term  is  often  used  in  a  still 
more  restricted  sense  to  designate  the  educative  process 
that  takes  place  in  the  school,  which  is  the  social  agency 
organized  for  the  express  purpose  of  adjusting  each  new 
generation  to  the  environments,  institutions  and  manner 
of  living  established  by  preceding  generations.  It  is 
usual  and  convenient  to  designate  the  educative  process, 
in  so  far  as  it  is  deliberately  controlled  by  the  school,  as 

61 


62  PHILOSOPHY   OF  EDUCATION 

formal  education,  and  to  refer  to  the  process,  in  so  far  as 
it  is  controlled  by  all  other  educative  agencies,  as  informal 
education. 

The  complete  system  of  fully  developed  instincts  which 
the  higher  animal  inherits  from  his  ancestors  fixes  his 
adjustments  to  his  environment  and  renders  them  so 
rigid  that  but  little  change  or  modification  is  possible 
either  through  the  experience  of  the  individual  or  through 
the  conscious  efforts  of  man.  Animals  in  domestication 
and  wild  animals  may,  indeed,  be  trained  to  new  modes 
of  activity  within  certain  narrow  limits,  but  such  training 
is  in  its  nature  very  different  from  that  resulting  from 
conscious  intelligent  action  such  as  is  usually  involved  in 
the  educative  process,  and  the  modifications  seldom,  if 
ever,  perpetuate  themselves  from  generation  to  generation 
except  through  human  agency.  The  real  modification 
of  the  animal's  adjustments  to  his  environment  is,  there- 
fore, rather  a  race  process  than  an  individual  process.  It 
is  phylogenetic,  not  ontogenetic,  while  the  training  they 
take  on  from  human  agencies  is  ontogenetic,  not  phylo- 
genetic. Various  species  of  higher  animals,  when  com- 
pared with  one  another  in  the  quality  of  their  adjustments 
to  environment,  may  be  said  to  be  more  or  less  plastic,  but, 
as  compared  with  man,  even  the  most  plastic  of  them  are 
extremely  rigid. 

The  limited  range  of  human  instincts  and  the  inchoate 
condition  in  which  they  appear  render  the  human 
infant  plastic.  This  plasticity  facilitates  modification  of 
existing  adjustments  and  renders  new  adjustments  both 
possible  and  necessary.  The  quality  of  plasticity,  while 
possessed  by  all  human  infants  to  a  degree  out  of  all 
proportion  to  that  in  which  it  is  possessed  by  any  of  the 
higher  animals,  is  not  possessed  in  equal  measure  by  the 


EDUCATION  AS   ADJUSTMENT  63 

various  races  of  mankind  nor  even  by  different  individuals 
of  the  same  race  or  family.  Moreover,  the  quality  of 
plasticity  varies  greatly  at  different  epochs  of  individual 
life,  and  it  is  capable  of  being  increased  or  diminished 
through  educative  agencies. 

The  value  of  plasticity  to  the  individual  and  to  the  race 
is  not  fixed  or  unvarying;  it  is  a  potentiality  rather  than 
an  actuality;  its  value  lies  wholly  in  the  fact  that  it 
renders  new  and  better  adjustments  possible.  But  it 
should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  acquiring  of  a  new 
adjustment  is  a  slow  and  difficult  process.  When  the 
superiority  of  the  new  adjustment  is  not  sufficient  to 
compensate  for  the  delay  and  the  expenditure  of  energy 
involved  in  its  acquirement,  plasticity  has  only  a  negative 
value.  Were  the  environments  to  which  human  life 
must  be  adjusted  unchangeable,  the  rigid  instinctive 
adjustments  to  be  found  in  animal  life  would  be  far 
superior  to  the  plasticity  which  characterizes  the  human 
infant.  On  the  other  hand,  when  the  environment  is 
unstable  and  particularly  when  the  changes  in  the  environ- 
ment are  rapid  and  deep-seated,  rigid  adjustments  no 
longer  serve  the  purposes  of  life,  and  extinction  of  the 
rigid  species  is  the  unavoidable  result.  Under  such 
conditions  plasticity  becomes  the  salvation  of  the  race. 
The  value  of  plasticity,  therefore,  depends  upon  the 
extent  and  the  rapidity  of  the  changes  which  take  place 
in  the  environment.  The  more  rapid  and  extensive  these 
changes  are  the  more  valuable  does  the  quality  of  plasticity 
become. 

Probably  there  has  been  no  period  in  the  history  of  the 
human  race  in  which  the  changes  in  man's  environment 
have  been  so  rapid  or  so  deep-seated  as  in  our  own  day, 
and  hence  there  never  was  a  time  when  the  quality  of 


64  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

plasticity  possessed  so  great  a  value  as  it  does  today.  So 
necessary,  in  fact,  has  this  quality  become  that  every 
element  in  the  educative  process  must  be  evalued  in  the 
first  instance  by  its  effect  upon  this  quality.  This  truth 
is  constantly  reiterated  in  current  educational  literature. 
It  is  thus  stated  in  an  epitome  of  President  Hall's  educa- 
tional writings.1 

"There  are  three  ideals  which  have  prevailed,  or  do  now 
prevail,  in  educational  philosophy.  According  to  the 
first,  education  is  at  its  highest  an  inculcation  of  the  best 
traditions  of  the  past.  It  reveres  Greece  and  Rome,  and 
the  purpose  of  education,  according  to  this  ideal,  is  to  bring 
the  child  into  contact  with  this  ancient  life,  and  enable 
him  to  absorb  its  lessons  in  such  a  way  as  to  refine  his 
nature,  to  set  him  apart  from  the  common  herd  as  a  cul- 
tured man.  This  ideal  has  been  most  consistently  rep- 
resented by  that  most  conservative  of  all  educational 
institutions,  the  denominational  college. 

"The  second  ideal  is  represented  by  the  tendency  of 
society  to  make  its  schools  in  its  own  image,  and  to  meas- 
ure their  efficiency  by  their  success  in  fitting  the  child  for 
the  domestic,  political  and  industrial  life  of  the  present 
time.  This  ideal  of  fitting  for  present  life,  for  service 
in  existing  institutions,  though  immeasurably  better  than 
that  of  fitting  in  accordance  with  a  by-gone  past,  also 
brings  with  it  a  danger  of  narrowness  and  provincialism. 
It  tends  to  select  only  such  knowledge  as  the  adult  mind 
finds  useful  for  its  own  purposes,  and  to  neglect  the  knowl- 
edge most  suited  to  the  child.  It  leads  to  utilitarianism, 
and  is  illiberal.  Those  who  thus  conceive  education  place 
the  school  organization  first,  and  subordinate  the  indi- 

1  Partridge,  Genetic  Philosophy  of  Education.  New  York,  1912. 
pp.  101  If. 


EDUCATION  AS  ADJUSTMENT  65 

vidual  to  it.  Citizenship  looms  large  in  comparison  with 
womanhood  and  manhood.  Its  greatest  fault  is  that, 
with  a  definite  ideal  of  efficiency  in  life  work  constantly 
held  before  the  youth,  it  fits  too  narrowly  for  practical 
tasks.  It  leads  to  too  early  and  too  narrow  specialization 
of  interests,  to  an  over-individualized  and  selfish  life,  in 
which  the  larger  conceptions  of  manhood  are  lost. 

"But  there  is  a  third  ideal  which  teaches  that  the 
school  shall  not  be  made  in  the  image  of  the  past  nor  of 
the  present,  but  shall  fit  man  for  the  next  stage  of  his 
development.  In  the  present  stage  of  rapid  transition 
and  expansion  of  our  race  this  ideal  of  the  future  must  be 
more  dominant  than  ever  before,  or  we  shall  deteriorate 
as  a  nation  and  fall  behind  in  the  race.  Our  children 
must  be  trained  not  merely  to  maintain  present  civili- 
zation, but  to  advance  upon  it.  We  must  never  forget 
that  the  present  is  not  a  finality.  And,  knowing  the  spirit 
of  the  age,  we  must  quite  as  often  oppose  it  as  serve  it. 
Education  must  always  see  that  no  good  of  the  past  be 
lost,  but  on  the  other  hand  it  must  infuse  into  youth  a 
deep  discontent  with  things  as  they  are,  and  it  must  give 
ideals  leading  to  the  next  step  in  human  evolution.  That 
is,  education  must  always  fit  youth  to  live  in  the  future, 
not  hi  the  present  nor  in  the  past." 

The  realization  of  each  of  these  three  ideals  demands 
the  quality  of  plasticity  in  the  pupil,  but  the  third  aim 
alone  makes  the  development  of  the  quality  of  plasticity 
its  direct  and  immediate  object.  Whatever  may  have 
been  advisable  in  the  past  under  social  and  economic 
conditions  which  were  more  or  less  stable,  it  is  evidently 
no  longer  wise  to  rest  contented  with  native  plasticity. 
We  must,  by  every  legitimate  means  in  our  power,  seek 
to  develop  this  quality  of  plasticity  to  the  highest  possible 


66  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

degree,  to  the  end  that  pupils  leaving  our  schools  may  be 
able  to  deal  effectively  with  the  new  and  rapidly  changing 
social  and  economic  conditions  under  which  they  must 
live. 

Plasticity,  as  we  have  thus  far  considered  it,  is  a  passive 
quality.  It  is  the  capacity  of  the  individual  to  take  on 
modifications  to  his  existing  modes  of  activity  and  to 
establish  entirely  new  modes  of  activity  to  meet  new  and 
changed  conditions.  But  adjustment  as  the  end  and  aim 
of  education  means  very  much  more  than  this.  It  means 
the  power  to  change  and  dominate  environment  quite  as 
much  as  the  power  to  dominate  and  change  the  individual. 
Indeed,  plasticity  as  a  vital  power  should  include  this 
positive  faculty,  this  ability  to  change  environment  in 
many  ways  so  as  to  make  it  meet  the  needs  of  self.  Adjust- 
ment means  changes  both  in  the  individual  and  in  his 
environment,  and  education,  to  be  efficient  under  present 
conditions,  must  develop  in  each  individual  this  two-fold 
power. 

Adjustment  implies  a  process  of  fitting  things  to  each 
other  so  that  they  may  work  harmoniously  towards  the 
attainment  of  their  ends,  thus  preventing  the  thwart- 
ing of  their  several  aims  through  mutual  opposition. 
Static,  unchangeable  bodies  can  never  adjust  themselves 
to  each  other  or  to  anything  else.  Now,  when  we  speak 
of  an  individual  adjusting  himself  to  his  environments, 
our  language  suggests  that  the  environments  are  fixed 
and  unchangeable  and  that  the  individual  must  conform 
his  actions  to  these  changeless  things  as  if  the  world 
could  not  be  altered  and  he  must  do  all  the  altering  on 
his  own  part.  If  this  implication  were  true,  "man  would 
be  compelled  to  eat  the  food  that  nature  in  her  wild  state 
produced  for  him.  He  would  have  to  find  shelter  hi  the 


EDUCATION  AS  ADJUSTMENT  67 

caves  and  dens  which  he  found  ready  to  hand,  or  seek  a 
temperature  where  the  winds  and  weather  would  be  tem- 
pered to  him  in  his  nakedness."1 

The  facts  in  the  case  show  the  contrary  of  these  supposi- 
tions to  be  true.  Civilized  man,  at  least,  is  satisfied  with 
nothing  as  he  finds  it.  In  whatever  environment  he  is 
placed  he  at  once  sets  to  work  to  modify  it  so  that  it  may 
more  adequately  meet  his  needs.  In  fact,  he  never 
permits  nature  in  her  relationship  to  him  to  work  out  her 
own  unmodified  designs,  for  his  highest  good  is  not  secured 
through  her  unaided  efforts;  his  aesthetic  need  is  not 
satisfied  by  nature's  product.  He  is  forever  reconstructing 
and  remaking  his  environments,  whether  physical,  aesthet- 
ical,  social  or  intellectual.  None  of  these  things  are 
"static  in  his  hands  or  unmodifiable  or  permanent  hi 
their  original  forms.  His  spiritual  and  physical  needs, 
not  the  environments,  are  the  really  permanent  things  in 
the  adjusting  process.  Adjustment,  then,  does  not  mean 
that  the  individual  fits  himself  into  the  world,  so  much  as 
that  he  makes  the  world  fit  him."1 

However  much  we  may  emphasize  one  or  the  other  of 
these  factors  in  the  process  of  adjusting  man  to  his 
environment,  the  fact  remains  that  it  is  the  business  of 
education  to  help  the  child  so  to  modify  himself  and  so  to 
modify  his  environment  that  the  one  may  be  properly 
adjusted  to  the  other.  It  is  the  business  of  education  so 
to  strengthen  the  will,  so  to  clarify  the  intelligence,  and 
so  to  preserve  the  plasticity  of  the  individual,  that  he 
may  conquer  his  environment  and  permanently  conquer 
himself. 

The  only  surprising  thing  about  this  educational  doc- 

1  Cf.  O'Shea,  Education  as  Adjustment,  New  York,  1905,  p.  99  ff. 
1  Loc.  cit. 


68  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

trine  is  that  so  many  educators  of  our  time  seem  to  regard 
it  as  a  new  thought,  whereas  it  is  the  very  central  thought 
of  Christianity.  Never  in  the  history  of  the  human  race 
has  there  been  a  better  illustration  of  this  two-fold 
conquest  than  was  given  to  us  by  Jesus  Christ  and  by 
His  followers.  Who  so  well  as  they  knew  how  to  conquer 
self  and  the  world  in  which  they  lived  and  bend  it  to  their 
purposes?  The  Church  taught  the  wild  nomadic  tribes 
the  arts  of  peace  by  which  they  subdued  the  primeval 
forest  and  built  up  the  institutions  of  Christian  civiliza- 
tion. She  taught  the  degenerate  pagan  to  conquer  his 
passions  and  to  use  the  rich  cultural  treasures  which 
he  inherited  from  Greece  and  Rome  in  the  work  of 
reconstructing  society.  She  led  man,  in  his  conquest 
of  physical  nature,  in  his  conquest  of  the  seas  and  in  his 
discovery  of  unknown  worlds.  She  furnished  him  with 
the  ideals  and  with  the  inspiration  which  found  expression 
in  the  fine  arts,  in  sculpture,  in  painting,  in  architecture 
and  music,  in  poetry  and  belles  lettres.  Nor  did  she  content 
herself  with  guiding  man  in  his  conquest  of  an  external 
world.  She  taught  him  the  art  of  so  modifying  and 
refining  his  own  nature  that  the  result  was  a  St.  Benedict, 
a  St.  Francis,  a  Bayard. 

It  is  true,  evangelical  Christianity  seems  to  have 
forgotten  the  Church's  steady  progress  in  the  conquest 
of  the  world  and  in  the  conquest  of  human  nature, 
and  would  lead  its  votaries  back  to  the  unchanged  and 
undeveloped  conditions  of  Gospel  days.  The  Catholic 
Church,  however,  whether  threatened  from  without  or 
shaken  by  storms  and  convulsions  from  within,  never 
forgot  the  Master's  command  to  go  forward  into  the  new- 
ness of  life.  She  never  forgot  her  divine  mission  to 
grow  and  develop  as  the  mustard  seed,  meeting  each  new 


EDUCATION  AS   ADJUSTMENT  69 

condition  with  new  adjustments,  both  by  modifying  the 
modes  of  her  own  reactions  and  by  modifying  man  in  his 
social  and  economic  life. 

The  denominational  college  may,  as  President  Hall 
says,  seek  to  confine  the  present  within  the  limits  of  the 
past,  but  in  so  doing  it  is  neither  true  to  the  example  of 
the  Church  nor  to  the  command  of  Jesus  Christ  Who  bade 
His  followers  "Follow  Me  and  let  the  dead  bury  their 
dead."  Jesus  frequently  warned  His  followers  against 
rigidity  and  against  the  danger  that  lurked  in  obedience 
to  the  unchanging  forms  of  their  local  customs.  The 
Jews  of  His  day  could  not  understand  His  demand  for 
change  and  modification  in  what  seemed  to  them  to  be 
fixed  and  rigid  because  of  its  divine  origin,  nor  could 
they  understand  the  message  to  His  apostles  "I  have  yet 
many  things  to  say  to  you:  but  you  cannot  bear  them 
now.  But  when  He,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come,  He 
will  teach  you  all  truth  .  .  .  and  the  things  that  are 
to  come,  He  shall  show  you."1  But  the  apostles  and  their 
successors  inherited  the  Master's  spirit  and  made  His  com- 
mand their  rule  of  life. 

St.  Paul,  writing  to  the  Corinthians,  reminds  them  that 
"the  letter  killeth,  but  the  Spirit  quickeneth."  And  the 
Church  today,  as  in  all  her  history,  stands  forth  the  best 
existing  embodiment  of  plasticity.  She  manifests,  as  no 
other  society  ever  manifested,  the  power  of  adjustment  to 
changing  environments.  Hers  is  not,  and  never  has  been, 
a  weak  yielding  to  environmental  forces.  She  still  retains 
the  divine  secret  of  adjusting  herself  to  environment  and  of 
adjusting  her  environment  to  self  so  that  she  may  continue 
to  live  in  all  climes,  under  all  forms  of  government,  and  to 
minister  to  all  mankind.  She  is  not  passive,  nor  rigid,  nor 

1John  zvi,  IS. 


70  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

local,  and  the  educator  who  would  understand  the  inmost 
meaning  of  the  quality  of  plasticity  as  the  crowning  glory 
of  life  cannot  do  better  than  to  study  it  as  it  exists  in  the 
Church.  There  he  will  learn  the  meaning  of  adjustment 
as  a  conquest  of  self  and  a  conquest  of  environment  such 
as  will  lead  to  the  fulness  of  life  both  here  and  hereafter. 

When  Herbert  Spencer  defined  life  as  the  continued 
adjustment  of  internal  to  external  relations,  he  put  into 
new  phrase  a  thought  expressed  by  Aristotle  more  than 
two  thousand  years  ago.  Whether  or  not  this  be  regarded 
as  an  adequate  definition -of  life,  it  certainly  expresses  one 
of  life's  most  characteristic  features.  It  is  only  another 
way  of  saying  that  if  any  species  of  living  beings  is  to  con- 
tinue to  exist,  its  members  must  escape  the  destructive 
forces  in  their  environment  and  they  must  find  food  upon 
which  to  exist,  to  grow  and  to  reproduce  themselves.  Now 
these  primary  vital  functions  can  continue  to  be  performed 
only  on  condition  that  the  creatures  obey  the  laws  that 
govern  the  world  in  which  they  live,  a  thought  wThich  might 
be  expressed  equally  well  by  saying  that  the  continued 
existence  of  a  species  demands  the  adequate  adjustment 
of  its  members  to  the  environment  in  which  they  live. 

The  history  of  life  upon  the  earth  shows  us  that  when- 
ever the  environment  has  remained  unchanged  for  a  long 
period  of  time  the  forms  of  life  that  dwell  in  it  gradually 
become  adjusted  to  it.  Variations  in  the  direction  of 
more  advantageous  adjustment  are  preserved  while  all 
other  variations  are  eliminated,  until,  in  the  course  of 
time,  a  practically  perfect  adjustment  is  reached.  This 
adjusted  form  is  then  transmitted  to  each  subsequent 
generation.  Sameness  of  type  in  structure  and  function 
is  thus  secured  and  the  species  is  rendered  rigid.  Thus 
the  environment  of  the  globigerina  in  the  deep  sea  is 


EDUCATION  AS  ADJUSTMENT  71 

practically  the  same  today  as  it  was  in  the  ancient  chalk 
seas,  and  the  structure  and  habits  of  the  globigerina  have 
remained  practically  unchanged  throughout  all  this  period 
of  geological  time.1 

Whenever  serious  environmental  changes  occur,  all 
species  of  beings  that  are  unable  to  change  in  structure 
or  in  function  or  in  both,  so  as  to  meet  the  demands 
of  the  changed  environment,  must  cease  to  exist.  The 
geological  record  reveals  the  fact  that  nature  has  pro- 
nounced the  death  sentence  upon  innumerable  forms  of 
life  which  have  failed  to  adjust  themselves  to  a  changing 
environment.  Rigid  species  are  produced  in  a  long  con- 
tinued changeless  environment,  and  they  can  exist  nowhere 
else.  When  such  an  environment  finally  undergoes  any 
marked  change,  the  rigid  species  which  had  inhabited 
it  become  extinct.  On  the  other  hand,  a  slowly  changing 
environment,  by  continually  modifying  its  standard  of 
selection,  tends  to  produce  plastic  forms.  The  plasticity 
thus  revealed,  however,  is  a  characteristic  of  the  race 
rather  than  of  the  individual,  and  the  adjustment  is  con- 
sequently a  slow  process,  and  when  the  environment 
changes  rapidly,  the  tendency  to  extinction  hi  all  the  forms 
which  inhabit  it  is  pronounced.  This  statement  holds 
true  whether  we  accept  the  theory  of  natural  selection, 
the  theory  of  Mendel,  or  any  other  theory  which  may  find 
favor  in  the  biological  world.  The  emphasis  will  change 
according  as  our  theories*  change,  but  the  fundamental 
fact  remains  unaltered  that  rigid  species  inhabit  unchang- 
ing environments  and  plastic  species  dwell  in  changing 
environments. 

It  should  be  further  noted  that  the  relation  between 
plasticity  and  the  character  of  the  environment  applies 

1  Cf.  Huxley,  Dis.  Biol.  Geol..  New  York.  N.  Y..  1894,  1  ff. 


72  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

not  only  to  the  structure  of  animals  but  to  their  mode  of 
action.  The  conduct  of  the  individual  animal  is  governed 
almost  wholly  by  a  body  of  organized  instincts  and  reflexes 
which  it  has  inherited  from  its  ancestors.  This  circum- 
stance renders  education  both  unnecessary  and  impossible 
to  the  mere  animal.  It  is  true  that  the  conduct  of  many 
of  the  higher  animals  is  susceptible  of  modification  within 
very  narrow  limits  through  experience  and  through  imi- 
tation, but  except  in  cases  of  training  under  domestication 
such  changes  are  comparatively  insignificant. 

"The  continued  adjustment  of  internal  to  external 
relations"  does  not  express  the  sum  total  of  the  adjust- 
ments which  exist  between  living  beings  and  their  envi- 
ronment. Life  in  all  its  forms  acts  upon  its  environment 
and  is  modified  by  it.  Vegetation  modules  the  climate; 
where  it  is  abundant,  it  increases  the  precipitation  and 
prevents  rapid  evaporation;  and  a  prolific  animal  species 
reduces  the  quantity  of  food  in  the  environment  and 
frequently  alters  the  conditions  of  its  attainment.  The 
beaver  builds  its  dam  to  facilitate  the  capture  of  food; 
the  muskrat  builds  its  house  to  secure  a  modified  climate 
in  which  to  live;  but  it  should  be  observed  that  the  intelli- 
gence governing  these  various  modifications  of  environ- 
ment is  not  the  intelligence  of  the  individual  but  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  Creator,  which  thus  finds  expression  in  the 
organized  instincts  of  the  species  to  which  the  animals  in 
question  belong. 

It  is  true,  however,  that  the  lower  forms  of  life  possess 
very  little  power  of  modifying  their  environment,  and  in 
consequence  the  adjustment  of  the  living  being  to  its 
environment  in  all  the  forms  of  life  below  man  is  chiefly  a 
process  of  change  hi  the  living  being.  But  in  man  these 
conditions  are  reversed;  adjustment  in  his  case  is  largely 


EDUCATION  AS  ADJUSTMENT  73 

concerned  with  modifying  environmental  conditions,  and 
a  large  and  important  part  of  the  work  of  education 
consists  precisely  hi  equipping  each  individual  with  such 
a  knowledge  of  nature  and  her  laws  as  will  enable  him  to 
conquer  her  and  to  subjugate  her  forces  to  his  will.  It 
should  be  further  observed  that  while  plasticity  in  the 
forms  of  life  below  man  is  chiefly  a  race  characteristic,  in 
man  it  is  chiefly  a  quality  of  the  individual.  In  spite  of 
the  long  history  of  civilization,  each  individual  human 
being  still  comes  into  the  world  with  an  extremely  limited 
power  of  conquering  his  environment,  and  were  it  not  for 
the  social  inheritance  which  he  as  an  individual  acquires 
through  educational  agencies  he  would  be  more  helpless 
in  the  all-important  work  of  adjusting  himself  to  his 
environment  than  many  of  the  higher  animals. 

In  spite  of  the  importance  to  man  of  learning  how  to 
modify  his  environment,  it  would  be  a  grave  error  to  assume 
that  the  business  of  education  consists  wholly  in  this. 
"Is  not  the  life  more  than  the  meat  and  the  body  more  than 
the  raiment?"  It  is  much  to  be  able  to  conquer  environ- 
ment, but  it  is  a  much  greater  privilege  to  be  able  to 
conquer  oneself.  The  growth  of  intelligence,  the  strength 
of  muscle  and  the  persistence  of  will  power  required  to 
conquer  environment  have  a  value  in  themselves  which  is 
much  higher  than  the  value  which  they  possess  as  means 
of  modifying  an  outer  world.  Nor  does  education  concern 
itself  alone  with  the  development  of  these  powers.  It 
must  aim  at  bringing  about  a  multitude  of  subtle  internal 
changes  in  feeling  and  emotion,  in  volition  and  insight, 
which  are  not  immediately  related  to  an  outer  world. 
The  business  of  education  is  indeed  to  equip  man  for  an 
outer  conquest,  but  it  has  a  still  higher  mission  to  trans- 
form the  inner  man  and  bring  him  into  conformity  with 


74  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  ideal  of  perfect  manhood  revealed  to  us  by  Jesus 
Christ.  Christian  education,  at  least,  should  be  conscious 
of  its  redeeming  mission.  It  must  never  forget  that  its 
chief  business  is  to  transform  a  child  of  the  flesh  into  a 
child  of  God. 

Individual  plasticity  and  its  correlative,  education,  are 
characteristic  of  man.  To  these  qualities  he  is  indebted 
in  large  measure  for  his  superior  power  of  adjusting  him- 
self to  a  rapidly  changing  environment  and  for  his  power 
of  adjusting  his  environment  to  his  own  needs. 

As  in  the  case  of  the  young  of  other  animals,  the  human 
infant  inherits  a  body  of  organized  reflexes  which  govern 
his  vegetative  functions,  but  the  more  complex  reflexes 
and  instincts  by  means  of  which  the  young  animal  secures 
adjustment  to  his  environment  are  in  the  case  of  the  human 
infant  largely  atrophied.  A  set  of  suitable  adjustments 
of  the  individual  to  his  environment  must  be  built  up  in 
each  single  member  of  the  human  family.  The  building 
up  and  perfecting  of  the  adjustments  as  well  as  the  impart- 
ing to  muscle,  to  will  and  to  intelligence  the  power  to 
modify  environments  in  suitable  ways  is  included  in  the 
work  of  education. 

Plasticity  as  the  mere  absence  of  adjustment  is  in  itself 
not  an  advantage  to  the  individual  or  to  the  race.  The 
individual  is,  in  fact,  rendered  helpless  in  the  absence  of 
adjustments.  It  is  the  absence  of  such  adjustments  that 
renders  the  human  infant  unable  to  walk  at  birth,  and 
for  a  considerable  time  thereafter  to  procure  his  own  food, 
or  to  preserve  his  own  life.  The  advantage  of  plasticity 
lies  in  the  fact  that  it  renders  it  possible,  through  educa- 
tion, to  build  up  in  the  individual  a  set  of  habits  or  of 
acquired  adjustments  to  present  environmental  conditions 
instead  of  instincts,  which  merely  perpetuate  inherited 


EDUCATION  AS  ADJUSTMENT  75 

adjustments  to  the  environmental  conditions  of  the  past. 
Now,  if  education  did  nothing  more  than  to  reinstate  in 
each  individual  the  adjustments  of  his  ancestors,  plas- 
ticity would  be  a  serious  handicap  and  instinct  would  be 
superior  to  education,  both  because  of  its  greater  economy 
and  because  of  the  greater  perfection  in  which  it  transmits 
the  ancestral  adjustments. 

From  considerations  such  as  those  here  set  forth  it 
follows  that  if  the  ideal  of  the  denominational  college  is, 
as  President  Hall  asserts,  "to  bring  the  child  into  contact 
with  this  ancient  life  and  enable  him  to  absorb  its  lessons 
hi  such  a  way  as  to  refine  his  nature,  to  set  him  apart  from 
the  common  herd" — if  it  is  to  do  this  and  only  th-is,  then  the 
denominational  college  is  neither  true  to  the  Christian  ideal 
of  education  nor  can  it  meet  the  demands  of  modern  times. 

Chinese  education  does,  hi  fact,  furnish  an  excellent 
illustration  of  the  failure  to  comprehend  the  meaning  and 
advantages  of  individual  plasticity,  and  it  furnishes  at  the 
same  time  abundant  evidence  of  the  arrested  develop- 
ment that  must  always  result  from  the  failure  of  education 
to  take  advantage  of  the  opportunities  which  individual 
plasticity  offers  to  bring  about  those  new  and  appropriate 
adjustments  which  are  called  for  by  new  situations  and 
changed  environments. 

The  Chinese  concept  of  education  is  revealed  in  the 
initial  sentence  of  one  of  the  Confucian  texts.  The  pur- 
pose of  Chinese  education  is  to  train  each  individual  in 
the  path  of  duty  wherein  is  most  minutely  prescribed 
every  detail  of  life's  occupations  and  relationships,  and 
these  have  not  changed  for  centuries; 

"1.  The  sovereign  and  king  orders  the  chief  minister  to 
send  down  his  (lessons  of)  virtue  to  the  millions  of  the 
people. 


76  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

"2.  Sons,  in  serving  their  parents,  on  the  first  crowing 
of  the  cock,  should  all  wash  their  hands,  and  rinse  their 
mouths,  comb  their  hair,  draw  over  it  the  covering  of  silk, 
fix  this  with  the  hairpin,  bind  the  hair  at  the  roots  with  the 
fillet,  brush  the  dust  from  that  which  is  left  free,  and  then 
put  on  then*  caps,  leaving  the  ends  of  the  strings  hanging 
down.  They  should  then  put  on  their  squarely  made 
black  jackets,  kneecovers,  and  girdles,  fixing  in  the  last 
then*  tablets.  From  the  left  and  right  of  the  girdle  they 
should  hang  their  articles  for  use:  on  the  left  side,  the  duster 
and  handkerchief,  the  knife  and  whetstone,  the  small 
spike  and  the  metal  speculum  for  getting  fire  from  the  sun; 
on  the  right,  the  archer's  thimble  for  the  thumb  and  armlet, 
the  tube  for  writing  instruments,  the  knife-case,  the  larger 
spike,  and  the  borer  for  getting  fire  from  wood.  They 
should  put  on  their  leggings  and  adjust  their  shoestrings. 

"3.  (Sons')  wives  should  serve  then*  parents-in-law  as 
they  served  their  own.  At  the  first  crowing  of  the  cock, 
they  should  wash  their  hands,  and  rinse  their  mouths, 
comb  their  hair,  draw  over  it  the  covering  of  silk,  fix  this 
with  the  hairpin,  and  tie  the  hair  at  the  roots  with  the 
fillet.  They  should  then  put  on  the  jacket,  and  over  it 
the  sash.  On  the  left  side  they  should  hang  the  duster 
and  handkerchief,  the  knife  and  whetstone,  the  small  spike, 
and  the  metal  speculum  to  get  fire  with;  and  on  the  right, 
the  needlecase,  thread,  and  floss,  all  bestowed  in  the 
satchel,  the  great  spike,  and  the  borer  to  get  fire  with 
from  wood.  They  will  also  fasten  on  their  necklaces,  and 
adjust  then*  shoestrings."1 

All  the  advantages  which  human  nature  offers  through 
individual  plasticity  are  here  set  aside  because  of  undue 
reverence  for  the  past.  Chinese  education  has  preserved 

1  Muller,  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  v.  37,  p.  449. 


EDUCATION  AS  ADJUSTMENT  77 

for  nearly  three  thousand  years  a  petrified  civilization. 
It  would  have  been  an  advantage  to  the  Chinese  had  their 
conduct  in  all  the  details  of  their  life  been  regulated  by 
instinct  as  it  is  in  the  case  of  the  bear  or  of  the  wild  pigeon. 
Education  among  the  Chinese,  during  all  of  the  long 
period  which  has  elapsed  since  Confucius,  has  attempted 
nothing  higher  than  that  which  is  accomplished  in  the 
higher  animal  by  instinct,  viz.,  the  transmission  to  the 
offspring  of  each  generation  of  the  ancestral  modes  of 
activity  in  unchanged  form,  and  it  is  very  seldom  indeed 
that  ancestral  forms  of  conduct  can  be  as  faithfully  trans- 
mitted through  education,  which  is  necessarily  largely 
external  in  its  operations,  as  through  instinct,  which  is 
bound  up  with  the  physical  organization  of  each  indi- 
vidual. 

In  so  far  as  any  educational  institution,  be  it  a  denomina- 
tional college  or  state  school,  approximates  the  Chinese 
ideal,  in  that  same  measure  does  it  sacrifice  the  advantage 
of  individual  plasticity,  which  is,  in  so  many  respects, 
the  greatest  gift  which  nature  has  bestowed  on  man. 

It  is  the  business  of  education  to  seek  to  conserve  all 
that  is  good  hi  the  past,  but  it  lies  no  less  within  its  scope 
to  meet  the  new  conditions  and  the  new  environments 
with  new  adjustments.  "Therefore  every  scribe  instructed 
in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  is  like  a  man  that  is  a  house- 
holder, who  bringeth  forth  out  of  his  treasure  new  things 
and  old."1 

There  are  sins  against  plasticity  deeper  than  those 
committed  by  the  Chinese.  There  are  educators  in  our 
midst  today  who,  speaking  in  the  name  of  science  without 
scientific  justification,  would  turn  our  children  back  to  the 
ideals  of  the  Pleistocene  man  for  the  models  on  which  to 

1  Matt,  xiii,  52. 


78  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

form  their  growing  minds;  and  even  were  these  educators 
to  hasten  the  child  forward  over  the  long  stretches  of 
time  that  have  supervened,  it  may  be  questioned  whether 
their  speed  in  this  march  would  enable  them  to  reach 
even  the  Confucian  ideal  before  the  end  of  the  plastic 
period  of  childhood  had  been  reached. 

While  it  is  true  that  individual  plasticity  facilitates 
development  and  renders  it  possible  for  the  race  to  make 
more  progress  in  one  generation  than  it  could  have  accom- 
plished during  long  ages  through  heredity  and  race  plas- 
ticity, while  it  is  true  that  individual  plasticity  renders 
education  both  possible  and  necessary,  nevertheless  it 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  education  as  it  proceeds 
necessarily  limits  individual  plasticity  by  building  up 
habits  similar  hi  nature  and  function  to  instincts,  con- 
stituting, as  they  do,  more  or  less  permanent  adjustments 
of  the  individual  to  his  environment.  With  the  progres- 
sive formation  of  habits  which  are  absolutely  indispensable 
to  effective  living,  there  must  always  be  a  corresponding 
diminution  of  individual  plasticity. 

In  spite  of  the  many  resemblances  which  exist  between 
habits  and  instincts  as  fixed  modes  of  activity,  they  differ 
in  at  least  three  important  respects:  (l)  habits  should  be 
adjustments  to  present  conditions,  whereas  instincts 
perpetuate  adjustments  to  past  conditions  which  no 
longer  exist.  (2)  Habits  are  acquired  in  the  life  of  each 
individual  through  individual  effort,  whereas  instincts 
come  up  out  of  the  past  and  are  inherited  ready  made. 
(3)  Habits  are  not  deeply  rooted  and  they  are  consequently 
subject  to  facile  modification,  whereas  instincts  lie  close 
to  the  heart  of  life  and  strongly  resist  alterations  of  any 
sort.  They  do,  in  fact,  chain  the  present  to  the  remote 
past. 


EDUCATION  AS  ADJUSTMENT  79 

The  plastic  period  of  the  individual  is  a  period  of  mental 
development  and  it  is  confined  to  the  morning  of  life. 
It  is  the  seed  tune  which  determines,  in  a  measure,  the 
fruitage  of  adult  life.  The  longer  the  period  of  plasticity, 
the  more  the  individual  may  profit  by  education,  and  where 
education  is  absent,  as  among  savage  peoples,  the  period 
of  plasticity  is  shortened.  As  civilization  has  developed 
and  become  more  complex,  as  its  products  have  become 
more  numerous  and  more  varied,  so  has  the  period  of 
individual  plasticity  been  extended  until  now,  in  the 
case  of  the  more  favored  individuals,  at  least,  the  period  of 
individual  plasticity  has  been  extended  over  some  thirty 
years  of  individual  life.  Plasticity  is  greatest  during  child- 
hood and  it  gradually  disappears  as  adolescence  ripens 
into  maturity.  The  length  of  the  plastic  period  varies 
not  only  between  the  savage  and  the  civilized  man,  but 
even  between  individuals  living  in  the  same  civilized 
community.  The  plastic  period  is  comparatively  short 
in  those  individuals  who  are  denied  educational  advantages 
and  who  at  an  early  age  are  left  to  then*  own  devices. 
Such  individuals  exhibit  a  shortened  plastic  period  while 
they  also  fail  to  reach  the  higher  plane  of  civilized  life. 
From  this  it  may  be  seen  that  education  not  only  pre- 
supposes plasticity,  but  that  it  tends  to  increase  it  and  to 
prolong  it,  and  it  may  be  further  concluded  from  the 
evidence  at  hand  that  the  effect  of  education,  as  measured 
by  the  increase  and  prolongation  of  plasticity,  depends 
upon  the  ideals  embodied  in  the  educational  method  in 
question. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  CULTURE  EPOCH  THEORY 

It  was,  perhaps,  inevitable  that  the  rapid  growth  of  the 
biological  sciences  during  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  should  in  many  ways  affect  educational  theory 
and  educational  practice.  Nor  should  it  be  considered  a 
matter  of  surprise  that  biological  terminology  and  bio- 
logical hypotheses  and  theories,  when  transferred  to  other 
fields,  would  occasionally  lead  to  extravagances  and  even 
to  dangerous  errors.  The  natural  desire  for  uniformity 
makes  it  easy  in  such  transfers  to  overlook  fundamental 
considerations  of  the  utmost  importance,  and  it  is  not 
often  that  the  workers  in  one  field  have  a  sufficient  knowl- 
edge of  the  other  to  verify  the  theory  hi  its  original  field 
and  to  be  able,  at  the  same  time,  to  judge  of  its  suitable- 
ness in  the  other.  To  these  two  causes  of  error  may  be 
added  a  third  of  scarcely  less  magnitude,  viz.,  the  tendency 
to  transfer  authorities  from  one  field  to  another.  The 
shadow  of  a  great  name  frequently  awes  and  prevents  the 
free  exercise  of  intelligence  among  those,  at  least,  who 
possess  a  meager  supply  of  confidence  in  their  own 
judgment. 

It  would,  indeed,  be  difficult  to  overstate  the  benefits 
which  education  has  derived  in  recent  years  from  the 
biological  sciences  both  directly  and  indirectly  through 
modern  psychology,  and  it  would  seem  that  education  has 
very  much  still  to  receive  from  the  same  source.  All  this, 
however,  should  not  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  the  transfer 
of  thought  and  theory  from  biology  to  education,  when 
made  by  the  incompetent  or  the  incautious,  is  fraught 
with  grave  danger.  A  notable  illustration  of  this  may  be 

80 


THE   CULTURE   EPOCH   THEORY  81 

found  in  the  culture  epoch  theory  and  its  pernicious 
effects  upon  educational  practice  in  this  country. 

The  rapid  development  of  the  science  of  embryology  a 
generation  ago  was  due,  in  large  measure,  to  the  acceptance 
of  the  doctrine  of  recapitulation.  The  changes  taking 
place  in  the  developing  mammalian  embryo,  had  seemed 
to  be  confused  and  kaleidoscopic  until  a  suggestion  was 
made  that  the  individual,  within  the  brief  period  of  em- 
bryonic life,  recapitulates  the  ancestral  forms  in  tho 
sequence  in  which  these  forms  actually  appeared  in  the 
history  of  the  race  or  phylum.  This  doctrine  is  summed 
up  in  the  single  phrase  Ontogeny  is  a  recapitulation  of 
phytogeny.  In  the  light  of  this  hypothesis,  the  multitude 
of  embryonic  changes  which  had  previously  seemed  con- 
fusing and  bewildering  fell  into  their  places  and  took  on  a 
definite  meaning. 

The  doctrine  of  recapitulation  did  not  spring  into 
existence  full  fledged;  it  took  the  usual  tune  to  win  its 
way  to  general  acceptance.  Probably  the  first  sugges- 
tion of  the  doctrine  is  contained  in  the  following  state- 
ment made  by  Mr.  Sedgwick  in  the  British  and  Foreign 
Medical  Chirurgical  Review  for  July,  1863:  "Atavism  in 
disease  appears  to  be  but  an  instance  of  memory  in  re- 
production, as  imitation  is  expressed  in  direct  descent;  and 
in  the  same  way  that  memory  never,  as  it  were,  dies  out, 
but  in  some  state  always  exists,  so  the  previous  existence 
of  some  peculiarity  in  organization  may  likewise  be  re- 
garded as  never  absolutely  lost  hi  succeeding  generations, 
except  by  extinction  of  race."1 

Owing  to  the  bearing  which  the  doctrine  of  recapitula- 
tion has  on  the  theory  of  evolution,  it  soon  challenged  the 

1  Quoted  in  Cope,  Primary  Factors  of  Organic  Evolution,  Chicago. 
1896,  p.  492. 


82  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

attention  of  workers  in  all  the  departments  of  biological 
science.  In  fact,  in  a  short  time,  it  came  to  be  looked 
upon  as  one  of  the  main  lines  of  evidence  for  the  theory 
of  evolution  itself.  The  embryonic  changes  through 
which  the  fertilized  ovum  is  gradually  transformed  into 
the  complex  structure  of  the  fully  developed  organism 
are  just  such  as  would  be  obtained  from  arranging  a 
definite  series  of  living  beings  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest  hi  the  order  of  their  increasing  complexity.  It  is 
a  brief  summary  of  the  forms  of  life  which  have  appeared 
upon  the  earth  presented  in  the  same  sequence  and  it 
harmonizes  with  the  data  brought  to  light  in  the  study  of 
the  geographical  distribution  of  animal  and  plant  forms. 

All  that  we  know  concerning  the  unity  of  nature  and 
the  analogies  between  vital  and  conscious  phenomena 
negatives  the  supposition  that  a  law  of  such  universal 
validity  in  the  development  of  the  physical  life  of  the 
individual  and  of  the  race  would  halt  abruptly  at  the 
frontiers  of  conscious  life.  Nothing  could  well  have  a 
greater  antecedent  probability  than  that  the  doctrine  of 
recapitulation  would  apply  to  the  conscious  life  of  man 
with  no  less  rigor  than  to  his  physical  life.  Students  of 
genetic  psychology  accordingly  turned  to  race  history 
for  light  in  which  to  examine  the  tangled  skein  of  phe- 
nomena exhibited  in  the  mental  development  of  the  child 
and  the  knowledge  yielded  up  by  genetic  psychology  is 
not  without  value  to  the  student  of  ethnology. 

In  making  the  transfer  of  the  doctrine  from  biology  to 
psychology,  psychologists  and  educators  of  wide  repute 
and  unquestioned  ability  have,  however,  at  times  seemed 
to  forget  an  important  item,  i.  e.,  that  in  embryology  we 
are  concerned  largely  with  structure,  whereas  in  psy- 
chology we  are  dealing  chiefly  with  function,  and  we 


THE   CULTURE   EPOCH   THEORY  83 

cannot  transfer  validly  from  one  of  these  sets  of  phe- 
nomena to  the  other.  The  culture  epoch  theory  fur- 
nishes an  excellent  illustration  of  the  mm- validity  of  such 
a  transfer. 

The  doctrine  of  recapitulation  is  not  confined  in  its 
application  to  the  unfolding  of  embryonic  life.  It  is 
applicable  throughout  the  entire  extent  of  morphological 
development.  The  deer  upon  attaining  the  breeding  age 
develops  a  one-pronged  horn  which  it  sheds  in  due  time. 
A  year  later  it  develops  a  two-pronged  horn  and  thus  in 
time  it  is  equipped  with  a  fully  developed  arborescent 
antler.  Now  this  series  of  changes  which  may  be  ob- 
served at  the  present  time  during  the  life  history  of 
existing  deer  parallels  the  race  history  of  the  deer  as  far 
as  this  is  revealed  to  us  by  the  record  of  thetrocks.  The 
one  pronged  deer  was  gradually  replaced  by  the  two 
pronged  deer  and  these  in  turn  gave  way  to  deer  with 
more  complex  antlers.  Other  instances  of  similar  import 
may  be  observed  in  the  larval  stages  of  lower  animals, 
such  as  frogs  and  insects.  In  all  these  instances  the  an- 
cestral structures  which  appear  in  the  course  of  individual 
development  may  actually  function,  and  thus  the  doctrine 
may  be  said  to  apply,  indirectly  at  least,  to  physiological 
phenomena. 

But  the  physical  development  of  man  and  of  all  the 
higher  animals  is  practically  completed  within  the  span 
of  embryonic  life  where  the  recapitulated  structures  are 
prevented  from  functioning,  and  this  suppression  of 
function  permits  of  an  abbreviation  and  atrophy  of  the 
recapitulated  structure  which  is  wholly  incompatible 
with  normal  f unctioning.  Moreover,  the  suppression  of 
function  in  these  recapitulated  structures  hastens  the 
process  of  development,  and  permits  the  individual  to 


84  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

attain  a  higher  level  of  structural  development  than  would 
otherwise  be  possible. 

"There  is  a  salamander  which  differs  from  most  other 
salamanders  in  being  exclusively  terrestrial  in  its  habits. 
Now,  the  young  of  this  salamander  before  then-  birth  are 
found  to  be  furnished  with  gills,  which,  however,  they  are 
never  destined  to  use.  Yet  these  gills  are  so  perfectly 
formed,  that  if  the  young  salamanders  be  removed  from 
the  body  of  their  mother  shortly  before  birth,  and  be  then 
immediately  placed  in  water,  the  little  animals  show 
themselves  .quite  capable  of  aquatic  respiration,  and  will 
merrily  swim  about  in  a  medium  which  would  quickly 
drown  their  own  parent."1  We  have  here  evidence  of 
repetition  of  ancestral  structure,  but  the  repetition  is 
purely  morphological.  The  further  back  we  go  in  the 
embryological  unfolding,  the  less  developed  we  find  the 
ancestral  structures  which  are  indeed  not  repeated  but 
recapitulated.  Not  one  of  the  repeated  or  recapitulated 
structures  which  occur  in  embryonic  life  are  destined  to 
function  in  the  life  of  the  individual  in  which  it  appears. 
It  is  necessary  to  emphasize  this  truth  that  we  may  under- 
stand how  wholly  unwarranted  is  the  application  of  this 
doctrine  which  is  put  forth  in  the  culture  epoch  theory. 

In  the  biological  field  we  find  nature  doing  her  best  to 
suppress  the  functions  of  all  the  recapitulated  ancestral 
structures,  and  on  the  success  of  her  endeavors  in  this 
direction  depends  the  advancement  of  the  creature  in 
organization.  "I  ask  the  reader,"  says  Romanes,  "to 
bear  hi  mind  one  consideration,  which  must  reasonably 
prevent  our  anticipating  that  in  every  case  the  life  history 
of  an  individual  organism  should  present  a  full  recapitu- 
lation of  the  life  history  of  its  ancestral  line  or  species. 

1  Romanes.  Darwin  and  After  Dar.,  Chicago,  1906.  vol.  1,  p.  102. 


THE   CULTURE   EPOCH   THEORY  85 

Supposing  the  theory  of  evolution  to  be  true,  it  must 
follow  that  in  many  cases  it  would  have  been  more  or 
less  disadvantageous  to  a  developing  type  that  it  should 
have  been  obliged  to  reproduce  in  its  individual  repre- 
sentatives all  the  phases  of  development  previously 
undergone  by  its  ancestry — even  within  the  limits  of  the 
same  family.  We  can  easily  understand,  for  example,  that 
the  waste  of  material  required  for  building  up  the  useless 
gills  of  the  embryonic  salamanders  is  a  waste  which,  sooner 
or  later,  is  likely  to  be  done  away  with;  so  that  the  fact  of 
its  occuring  at  all  is  in  itself  enough  to  show  that  the 
change  from  aquatic  to  terrestrial  habits  on  the  part  of 
this  species  must  have  been  one  of  comparatively  recent 
occurrence.  Now,  in  as  far  as  it  is  detrimental  to  a  devel- 
oping type  that  it  should  pass  through  any  particular 
ancestral  phases  of  development,  we  may  be  sure  that 
natural  selection — or  whatever  other  adjustive  causes  we 
may  suppose  to  have  been  at  work  in  the  adaptation  of 
organisms  to  their  surroundings — will  constantly  seek  to 
get  rid  of  this  necessity,  with  the  result,  when  successful, 
of  dropping  out  the  detrimental  phases.  Thus  the  fore- 
shortening of  developmental  history  which  takes  place  in 
the  individual  lifetime  may  be  expected  often  to  take 
place,  not  only  in  the  way  of  condensation,  but  also  in 
the  way  of  excision.  Many  pages  of  ancestral  history 
may  be  recapitulated  in  the  paragraphs  of  embryonic 
development,  while  others  may  not  be  so  much  as  men- 
tioned. And  that  this  is  the  true  explanation  of  what 
embryologists  term  'direct*  development — or  of  a  more 
or  less  sudden  leap  from  one  phase  to  another,  without  any 
appearance  of  intermediate  phases — is  proved  by  the  fact 
that  in  some  cases  both  direct  and  indirect  development 
occur  within  the  same  group  of  organisms,  some  genera 


86  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

or  families  having  dropped  out  the  intermediate  phases 
which  other  genera  or  families  retain."1 

Whether  or  not  the  doctrine  that  ontogeny  is  a  recapitu- 
lation of  phylogeny  be  accepted  as  true,  the  fact  still 
remains  that  the  doctrine  as  accepted  in  current  biology 
lends  no  support  whatever  to  the  culture  epoch  theory, 
which  is  supposed  to  be  the  logical  application  of  the  doc- 
trine to  the  process  of  education.  The  most  important 
features  of  the  biological  evidence  for  the  recapitulation 
theory  may  be  summed  up  as  follows:  (1)  We  are  dealing 
with  recapitulation,  for  the  most  part  and  not  repetition. 
With  few  exceptions  the  ancestral  structures  which  re- 
appear in  embryonic  life  are  mere  rudiments  utterly 
incapable  of  functioning.  (2)  Nature  is  constantly  re- 
ducing and  finally  eliminating  the  ancestral  phases  in 
ontogenetic  development.  (3)  High  development  depends 
upon  the  extent  to  which  nature  has  succeeded,  first  in 
preventing  functioning,  and  secondly,  in  abbreviating  or 
eliminating  ancestral  structures.  It  is  true  that  the 
insect  pauses  in  the  grub  stage  and  functions  and  that  the 
frog  pauses  in  the  tadpole  stage,  but  it  is  well  also  to  re- 
member that  the  adults  in  these  forms  of  life  never 
ascend  beyond  the  plane  occupied  by  a  frog  or  a  bug. 
High  organization,  such  as  is  to  be  found  in  man  and 
mammals,  is  attained  only  where  nature  has  succeeded  in 
causing  the  parent  to  function  for  the  offspring  through- 
out the  entire  developmental  series. 

If  education  is  to  follow  the  lead  of  this  doctrine,  it  must 
endeavor  to  carry  the  child's  conscious  life  through  the 
recapitulated  phases  of  race  history  without  allowing  it 
to  function  in  any  of  these  phases.  And  it  must,  if  it 
would  attain  a  high  degree  of  development  in  the  mental 

^p.  cit.  p.  103. 


THE   CULTURE  EPOCH   THEORY  87 

life  of  the  individual,  hasten  the  child  as  much  as  possible 
through  these  ancestral  phases.  It  must,  moreover,  by 
denying  to  the  child  all  stimulus  to  functional  activity  in 
these  early  forms,  cause  the  forms  themselves  to  atrophy 
and  gradually  to  disappear.  It  is  indeed  strange  that  the 
bearing  of  this  embryological  doctrine  should  be  so  com- 
pletely misunderstood  by  the  framers  and  advocates  of 
the  culture  epoch  theory. 

The  culture  epoch  theory  was  foreshadowed  by 
Herbart  and  Froebel,  but  was  first  definitely  formulated 
by  Ziller  who  says:  "Every  pupil  should  pass  successively 
through  each  of  the  chief  epochs  of  the  general  mental 
development  of  mankind  suitable  to  his  stage  of  develop- 
ment. The  material  of  instruction,  therefore,  should  be 
drawn  from  the  thought  material  of  that  stage  of  historical 
development  which  runs  parallel  with  the  present  mental 
stage  of  the  pupil."  Professor  Graves  after  citing  this 
passage  adds :  "This  theory  of  culture  epochs,  like  the  bio- 
logical theory  of  'recapitulation',  of  which  it  is  a  peda- 
gogical application,  is  now  admitted  by  most  educators 
to  be  thoroughly  inconsistent.  While  it  has  occasioned 
much  academic  discussion,  few  educators,  besides  Ziller, 
have  ventured  to  embody  it  completely  in  a  course  of 
study."1 

Had  the  culture  epoch  theory  and  its  influences  been 
confined  wholly  to  Ziller  and  to  his  immediate  disciples, 
the  discussion  of  the  subject  would  rightly  belong  to  the 
History  of  Education  rather  than  to  the  Philosophy  of 
Education.  But,  unfortunately,  the  doctrine  has  had  a 
wide  and  deep  influence  on  education  in  this  country. 
Consciously  or  unconsciously,  it  has  modified  text-books 


Graves,  Hist.  Ed.  Mod.  Tim.,  New  York.  1913,  p.  214. 


88  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

and  methods  that  are  still  in  use  in  many  of  our  schools 
and  are  likely  to  continue  in  use  for  many  a  day  to  come. 

It  is  quite  true,  as  Professor  Graves  says,  that  the  doc- 
trine is  at  present  thoroughly  discredited  by  educators 
who  have  an  adequate  scientific  training.  But  unfor- 
tunately it  has  in  the  past  found  support  in  some  of  our 
most  influential  educational  leaders  and  even  should  these 
same  leaders  now  make  a  public  retraction  of  their  belief 
in  the  theory,  it  would  take  the  usual  time  for  the  recan- 
tation to  overtake  the  original  statement. 

In  the  Epitome  of  President  Hall's  Educational  Writ- 
ings, brought  out  by  Dr.  Partridge  with  the  hearty 
endorsement  of  President  Hall  in  1912,  the  culture 
epoch  theory  holds  a  central  place;  nor  does  the  work 
contain  any  hint  that  President  Hall  has  changed  his 
views  on  this  matter.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a 
clearer  statement  of  the  culture  epoch  theory  than  that 
contained  on  pages  106-108  of  this  work:  "The  child  learns, 
and  becomes  adapted  to,  practical  life  by  passing  through 
all  the  stages  through  which  the  practical  activities  of 
the  race  have  passed,  and  this  is,  at  the  same  time,  the 
highest  type  of  culture  which  he  can  absorb.  He  must 
practice  for  a  time  that  which  shall  be  but  a  temporary 
interest  in  order  to  proceed,  by  nature's  way,  to  the  next 
higher  step.  ...  In  the  earlier  periods  in  the  develop- 
ment of  all  mammals,  the  embryo  passes  through  stages 
that  do  not  in  the  least  indicate  what  the  adult  form  will 
be  and  which  from  practical  considerations  would  seem 
wrong  and  superfluous.  And  yet  these  stages  are  of  the 
utmost  importance,  for  many  of  the  most  essential  higher 
structures  could  not  be  produced  without  them.  Pre- 
cisely this  principle  holds,  to  use  a  single  illustration,  in 
the  growth  of  the  tadpole's  tail,  which  is  in  itself  of  no 


THE   CULTURE   EPOCH   THEORY  89 

conceivable  use  to  the  adult  frog,  but  contains  the  means 
of  development  of  his  legs.  This  biological  principle  is 
more  than  analogous  to  the  principle  of  human  mental 
growth.  It  is  the  same  principle.  .  .  .  The  problem  of 
education  is  to  discover  the  stages  and  manner  of  trans- 
formations in  the  child,  and  learn  how  to  facilitate  growth, 
complete  the  coordination  of  these  stages  into  a  unity, 
supply  the  right  culture  or  nutritive  material  suited  to  each 
stage.  Only  thus  can  we  expect  to  find  educational  stand- 
ards, to  protect  against  the  many  influences  in  society — hi 
home,  school,  church,  civilization  generally — which  tend  to 
break  up  the  natural  processes  of  growth  of  the  child, 
make  him  precocious,  drive  him  too  early  to  specialized 
and  practical  life,  and  teach  him  what  he  is  not  ready  to 
learn." 

There  is  in  this  passage  a  curious  blending  of  elemental 
biological  truths  with  strange  misconceptions  which  lead 
to  an  application  of  the  doctrine  in  a  sense  wholly  opposed 
to  that  which  nature  provides.  Even  if  it  be  granted  that 
each  previous  stage  of  embryological  unfolding  contains 
elements  which,  through  metamorphoses,  become  the 
structures  in  the  subsequent  stage,  it  does  not  follow  that 
the  structure  in  its  earlier  form  should  be  fully  developed 
or  should  function  in  order  to  produce  the  transformed 
structure  of  the  subsequent  stage.  In  fact,  the  very 
opposite  of  this  is  what  we  find  throughout  the  entire 
extent  of  embryonic  development.  Nature  is  busily  at 
work  transforming  these  structures  and  preventing  all 
of  them  from  full  development  and  from  functioning  until 
the  final  structures  are  reached  in  the  latter  stages  of 
development. 

If  we  are  to  apply  this  doctrine  in  the  field  of  educa- 
tion, therefore,  it  is  clear  that  while  we  may  find  the 


90  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

explanation  to  many  of  the  phenomena  exhibited  in  the 
development  of  the  child's  mind  and  heart  in  the  fact 
that  he  is  recapitulating  in  his  mental  life  the  history  of 
his  race,  we  must  cooperate  with  nature  in  hastening  the 
child  through  these  developmental  stages  while  preventing 
or  reducing  their  function  to  a  minimum,  not  by  external 
force  indeed,  but  by  withholding  the  stimuli  which  would 
cause  the  child  to  remain  in  these  stages  and  function 
instead  of  hastening  forward  to  better  and  higher  things. 
We  must,  in  fact,  cooperate  with  "the  many  influences  in 
society — in  home,  school,  church,  civilization  generally — 
which  tend  to  break  up  the  natural  process  of  growth  of 
the  child."1  Whether  or  not  the  doctrine  of  recapitulation 
be  true  as  applied  to  morphological  development  of  the 
higher  animal,  it  is  perfectly  obvious  that  it  lends  no  sup- 
port whatever  to  the  practice  of  inducing  the  child  to 
linger  in  each  ancestral  phase  of  racial  development  that 
he  is  recapitulating,  as  is  urged  by  the  culture  epoch 
theory  and  its  advocates.  And  it  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand how  a  man  of  such  wide  scientific  attainments  as 
the  President  of  Clark  University  could  make  such  a 
fundamental  error  in  the  application  of  the  doctrine  of 
recapitulation  as  that  contained  in  the  following  state- 
ment: "The  first  problem  is  to  learn  how  to  recognize  the 
stages  in  which  nature  is  at  work,  and  we  must  then 
allow  these  stages  free  play,  suiting  instruction  and  culture 
to  them  with  full  confidence  that  the  insight  of  nature 
and  of  the  race  is  better  than  the  wisdom  of  the  individual, 
and  that  if  nature  be  wrong,  it  will  certainly  be  impossible 
to  devise  a  method  that  shall  contain  less  dangers  of 
errors."2  Were  the  view  here  expressed  correct,  a  recon- 

1  Partridge,   Genetic   Philosophy  of  Education,  New  York,  1912, 
p.  108. 

*Op.  cit.  109. 


THE  CULTURE   EPOCH   THEORY  91 

struction  of  the  entire  work  of  education  would  be 
demanded,  and  if  it  be  erroneous,  it  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  correct  the  error.  Unfortunately  we  are 
not  now  in  a  position  to  consider  the  question  as  if  it  were 
about  to  be  proposed  to  the  educational  world.  The 
error  has  already  been  widely  accepted  and  is  bearing 
abundant  fruit  of  its  kind.  Those  who  have  undertaken 
to  carry  the  theory  to  its  logical  conclusion,  are  demanding 
that  we  set  aside  the  child's  social  inheritance  and  frankly 
accept  his  physical  inheritance  as  the  guide  to  the  develop- 
ment of  his  mental  and  moral  life.  They  are  urging  all 
our  teachers  to  take  sides  with  the  tendencies  of  the 
child's  physical  nature  in  opposition  to  the  socializing 
tendencies  "of  home,  school,  church,  civilization  gener- 
ally." Nor  has  the  doctrine  been  confined  to  philosophical 
speculations  on  educational  problems.  It  has  taken  on 
concrete  and  practical  form  in  text-books  and  other  forms 
of  literature  which  are  being  put  into  the  children's 
hands.  It  is  embodied  in  methods  which  are  being 
employed  very  widely  in  the  public  schools  of  the  country. 

As  an  illustration  of  what  the  culture  epoch  theory 
stands  for  hi  the  primary  rooms,  we  will  turn  to  the 
"Industrial  and  Social  History  Series,"  by  Katherme 
Elizabeth  Dopp,  Ph.D.,  of  the  University  of  Chicago. 
The  first  volume  of  this  series  appeared  in  1903.  The 
fourth  volume  was  issued  in  1912.  The  books  are  in- 
tended for  the  use  of  children  in  the  primary  grades. 

In  the  first  volume,  the  "Tree  Dwellers,"  the  author 
says:  "I  wish  to  take  this  opportunity  to  express  my 
gratitude  to  Professor  Dewey  for  the  suggestions  he  has 
given  me  in  reference  to  this  series  and  to  acknowledge 
that  without  the  inspiration  that  has  come  through  his 
teaching  I  should  never  have  undertaken  a  work  of  this 
kind."  There  follows  a  litany  of  learned  authorities 


92  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

whose  advice  and  cooperation  were  secured,  or  whose 
authority  was  invoked  in  support  of  the  work. 

This  series  of  books  attempts  to  carry  the  child  through 
the  various  epochs  in  the  development  of  the  race  begin- 
ning with  the  "Tree  Dwellers."  It  is  suggested  that  the 
children  be  brought  to  li ve  over  again  as  vividly  as  possible, 
through  imagination  and  dramatization,  the  life  of  these 
Pleistocene  people.  The  teacher  is  urged  to  impress  upon 
the  children  that  "although  the  father  was  more  or  less 
attached  to  the  primitive  group,  it  was  the  mother  and 
child  that  constituted  the  original  family."  When  the 
second  child  came  the  first  was  pushed  off  and  made  to 
shift  for  himself.  In  fact,  the  Tree  Dwellers  are  presented 
as  animals  among  animals,  with  little  or  nothing  to 
distinguish  them  as  human  beings.  They  were  without 
family  life,  without  homes,  other  than  those  which  they 
could  provide  for  themselves  in  the  tree-tops.  They  knew 
nothing  of  fire  or  of  cooperative  action.  We  are  further 
told  in  the  "Suggestions  to  Teachers"  at  the  end  of  the 
book  that  "the  problems  with  which  the  child  at  this 
time  is  grappling  are  so  similar  in  character  to  those  of 
the  race  during  the  early  periods  of  its  development  that 
they  afford  the  child  a  rich  background  of  experience 
suited  to  his  own  needs." 

The  twentieth  lesson  of  this  series  tells  how  two  boys 
who,  having  slept  in  a  tree  all  night,  secured  their  breakfast. 
"The  boys  slipped  down  the  tree  and  picked  up  their 
clubs.  They  crept  up  softly  and  peeped  into  the  alders. 
There's  nothing  there,'  said  One-Ear.  Bodo  knew  better. 
He  noticed  a  hump  among  the  leaves.  He  reached  out 
his  hand  and  touched  it.  It  was  a  little  calf  that  had 
been  hid  there  by  its  mother.  It  scarcely  moved  as 
Bodo  touched  it.  Its  mother  had  taught  it  to  lie  still. 


THE   CULTURE   EPOCH   THEORY  98 

Many  people  might  have  passed  it  by.  But  Bodo  had 
sharp  eyes,  and  besides  he  was  very  hungry.  So  the  boys 
killed  the  calf  and  began  to  eat  the  raw  flesh.  They  ate 
until  they  were  satisfied." 

This  excerpt  is  taken  as  a  specimen  of  the  phase  of 
human  life  that  the  child  of  six  and  a  half  or  seven  years 
old  is  supposed  to  be  reliving.  Long  ages  pass  before 
primitive  man  reaches  the  stage  of  refinement  which  the 
children  of  seven  or  seven  and  a  hah*  years  are  supposed  to 
be  reliving.  The  characteristics  of  this  antique  civiliza- 
tion may  be  judged  from  Lessons  V  and  VI  of  the  "Early 
Cave-Men:" 

"THINGS  TO  THINK  ABOUT 

What  do  you  think  the  Cave-Men  will  do  with  Sabre- 
Tooth's  skin?  What  will  they  do  with  his  teeth  and 
claws  ?  What  will  they  do  with  his  flesh  ?  Can  you  think 
of  what  they  might  do  with  the  bones?  How  do  you 
think  they  learned  to  cook  food? 

Preparations  for  the  Feast 

How  excited  all  the  people  on  the  hills  were  when  they 
knew  that  Sabre-Tooth  had  been  killed!  Everybody 
wanted  to  see  him.  Young  and  old  crowded  around  to 
see  the  monster  as  he  lay  stretched  out  on  the  ground. 
They  gazed  at  the  creature  in  silence.  They  admired  his 
rich  tawny  stripes.  Not  a  man  on  the  hills  had  ever  before 
been  able  to  get  such  a  skin.  They  all  wished  that  they 
might  have  it,  but  they  knew  that  it  belonged  to  Strong- 
Arm.  They  examined  the  two  large  sabre-teeth.  They 
felt  of  the  smaller  teeth  and  claws.  At  length  the  men 
began  to  quarrel  about  the  trophies,  but  Strong-Arm 
waved  them  back.  He  claimed  one  sabre-tooth  for 


94  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

himself  and  allowed  the  other  to  go  to  the  brave  old  man. 
When  Strong-Arm  spoke  the  men  kept  silent,  for  they 
knew  that  the  trophies  belonged  to  the  bravest  men.  But 
they  were  given  a  share  in  the  smaller  teeth  and  claws. 
While  they  were  loosening  them  with  stone  hammers, 
the  women  were  hunting  for  then:  stone  knives.  They 
were  soon  busy  taking  off  Sabre-Tooth's  beautiful  skin. 
When  the  heavy  skin  was  off,  they  began  to  get  ready  for 
the  feast.  They  ate  pieces  of  raw  flesh  as  they  worked, 
and  tossed  pieces  to  the  men  and  boys.  They  were  all 
too  hungry  to  wait  for  the  feast.  Besides,  they  were  used 
to  eating  raw  meat.  But  they  had  learned  how  to  cook 
meat  at  this  time.  They  had  learned  to  roast  meat  in 
hot  ashes.  At  first  they  roasted  the  animal  in  its  skin, 
but  now  they  knew  a  better  way.  They  skinned  the 
animal  and  cut  out  the  ribs;  then  they  buried  them  in 
hot  ashes.  They  covered  the  ashes  with  hot  coals. 
They  cut  slices  of  meat  with  their  stone  knives  and  put 
them  on  roasting  sticks.  Then  they  held  these  sticks 
over  the  hot  coals  just  as  we  sometimes  do  today. 

THINGS    TO  DO 

Make  believe  that  you  are  doing  some  of  the  work  that  the 
Cave-Men  did,  and  see  if  anyone  can  guess  what  it  is.  See 
if  you  can  cook  something  over  the  coals.  Ask  someone  to 
read  you  a  story  that  Charles  Lamb  wrote  about  roast  pig. 

VI 

THINGS    TO    THINK   ABOUT 

How  do  you  think  the  Cave-Men  would  act  at  a  feast  ? 
What  would  they  use  for  dishes  ?  WTiat  would  they  do  to 
entertain  themselves  and  their  neighbors?  WTien  would 
the  neighbors  go  home? 


THE   CULTURE   EPOCH    THEORY  95 

The  Feast 

Nobody  knew  just  when  the  feast  began.  Nobody  set 
the  table,  for  there  was  no  table  to  set.  But  the  women 
brought  bowls  they  had  made  out  of  hollow  gourds.  Be- 
fore the  meat  was  half  cooked  everybody  was  eating. 
Some  ate  thick  slices  that  had  been  partly  roasted  on  sharp 
sticks.  Others  chewed  raw  meat  from  bones  which  they 
tore  from  the  carcass.  The  children  sucked  strips  of  raw 
meat  and  picked  the  scraps  from  the  ground.  When  the 
women  lifted  the  ribs  out  of  the  hot  ashes  they  found  a 
nice  gravy.  They  dipped  up  the  gravy  in  then*  gourd 
bowls  and  gave  it  to  the  men.  Strong-Arm  dipped  some 
up  with  a  bone  dipper  that  had  been  made  from  the  skull 
of  a  cave-bear.  Then  he  tore  out  a  rib  from  the  carcass 
and  gnawed  the  meat  from  the  bone.  They  all  held 
what  they  ate  in  their  hands.  They  all  ate  very  fast,  and 
they  ate  a  long  time.  At  last  their  hunger  was  satisfied, 
and  they  began  to  crack  the  marrow  bones  and  scrape 
the  marrow  out  with  sharp  sticks  and  bones.  When  the 
men  became  tired  of  sucking  the  bones,  they  tossed  them 
to  the  women  and  children.  Then  the  men  joined  in  a 
hunting  dance  while  the  women  beat  time  with  the  bones. 
The  women  chanted,  too,  as  they  beat  time.  They 
danced  until  all  became  tired  and  the  visitors  were  ready 
to  go.  Then  Fire-Keeper  loaded  pieces  of  meat  upon  the 
backs  of  the  women,  and  all  gathered  around  to  see  the 
neighbors  start  home.  As  soon  as  they  were  gone  the 
Cave-Men  prepared  to  rest  for  the  night. 

THINGS    TO    DO 

Take  turns  in  doing  something  that  the  Cave-Men  did  at 
the  feast,  and  let  the  children  guess  what  it  is.  Find  some 


96  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

good  marrow  bones  and  crack  them.  Find  out  whether  u 
use  marrow  bones  for  anything  today.  If  you  think  th< 
you  can,  make  something  of  the  marrow  bones.  Can  yo 
think  why  bones  are  filled  with  marrow?  See  if  you  ca 
beat  time  with  marrow  bones  so  as  to  help  someone  do  h 
work.  See  if  you  can  make  dishes  of  pumpkins,  squashe 
melons,  cucumbers,  or  anything  else  that  you  can  find" 

Nothing  further  is  needed  surely  than  such  lessons  t 
these  to  demonstrate  the  viciousness  of  the  Culture  Epoc 
Theory.  Granting,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  that  tt 
child's  unfolding  conscious  life  at  the  age  of  seven  and 
half  years  presents  a  recapitulation  of  such  primith 
savagery  as  is  therein  portrayed,  common  sense,  as  well  i 
science,  would  suggest  that  every  possible  means  shoul 
be  taken  to  prevent  the  latent  greed  and  savagery  of  tl 
child's  nature  from  flaming  into  expression  while  he 
passing  through  such  dangerous  developmental  phase 
To  depart  from  such  counsels  of  prudence,  and  cause  tl 
child  to  pause  and  function  in  these  ancient  ways,  ca 
have  but  one  result,  namely,  to  arrest  the  moral  and  cu 
tural  development  of  the  child  and  drag  him  down  to  tl 
level  of  the  brute.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  point  01 
the  many  other  vicious  features  of  these  books  such  < 
leading  the  children  to  believe  that  society  grew  out  < 
the  accidental  protection  against  wild  beasts  which  w, 
furnished  by  fire,  and  that  religion  grew  out  of  lying  ai 
trickery.  We  cannot,  however,  omit  one  more  illu 
tration  oithe  utter  brutality  of  this  class  of  child  literatui 
We  take  it  from  "Eskimo  Stories"  by  Mary  E.  Smith, 
the  Louis  Chapman  School  of  Chicago.  Instead  of  gob 
back  to  the  hypothetical  beast  men  of  the  long  ago,  Mi 
Smith  seeks  to  clothe  her  narrative  with  verisimilitui 
by  placing  it  among  the  eskimos  of  today  and  presentu 


THE   CULTURE   EPOCH   THEORY  97 

the  children  with  the  photograph  of  a  little  girl,  who 
narrates  the  incidents  as  of  her  own  experience. 

After  recounting  the  difficulties  which  the  eskimo  people 
encounter  in  getting  water,  the  story  continues :  "Do  you 
think  that  Nipsu  or  Agoonack,  or  their  mother,  or  anyone 
would  use  this  water  to  wash  in  when  it  costs  so  much 
time  and  labor?  No!  No!  That  would  seem  a  sin  to 
them.  They  do  not  know  how  good  it  is  to  be  clean,  but 
they  know  how  hard  it  is  to  get  water.  Once  Agoonack 
and  Nipsu  saw  their  mamma  wash  baby's  face.  She 
washed  it  with  her  tongue  just  as  the  mamma  cats  wash 
then*  kittens'  faces.  The  baby's  face  grew  almost  white. 
It  was  a  strange  sight,  and  the  children  asked  then*  mamma 
many  questions.  She  told  them  that  each  of  them  had 
been  washed  in  the  same  way.  But  this  was  long  ago."1 
If  those  things  were  not  in  books  written  in  our  own  day 
by  women  holding  positions  hi  our  schools,  and  if  they 
were  not  actually  put  into  children's  hands,  one  would 
scarcely  believe  that  any  woman,  not  wholly  degraded  or 
insane,  could  bring  herself  to  so  degrade  motherhood  in 
the  eyes  of  the  little  ones  committed  to  her  care. 

Pragmatism  and  the  Gospel  unite  in  establishing  a  test 
for  the  value  of  educational  doctrines.  "By  their  fruits 
you  shall  know  them."  Now  if  we  are  to  judge  the  cul- 
ture epoch  theory  by  the  fruitage  which  it  is  bearing  in 
our  midst,  it  is  high  time  that  every  energy  were  bent  to 
its  extirpation  before  our  people  become  wholly  brutalized 
through  its  pernicious  influence. 

Of  course,  the  illustrations  cited  above  are  extreme.  It 
was  fop  this  reason  they  were  selected  that  they  might 
the  better  illustrate  the  trend  of  the  doctrine.  It  should 
be  noted,  however,  that  such  repulsive  books  as  those 

1Smith.  Eskimo  Stories,  Chicago,  1902,  p.  124. 


98  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

from  which  we  have  just  been  quoting  are  far  less  dan- 
gerous than  other  books  embodying  the  same  tendencies 
masked  in  more  pleasing  garb.  Books  of  this  latter 
character  are  not  likely  to  shock  the  sensibilities  of  decent 
people  and  are  in  consequence  permitted  to  sow  the  seeds 
of  evil  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  little  ones. 


CHAPTER  VI 
MENTAL  GROWTH 

It  is  an  unfortunate  circumstance  that  modern  psy- 
chology and  education  have  failed  to  develop  strictly 
technical  vocabularies,  and  that  they  have  instead  em- 
ployed popular  terms  of  vague  and  indefinite  meaning  to 
designate  strictly  scientific  concepts.  The  terms  "growth" 
and  "development"  illustrate  the  difficulties  which  this 
procedure  entails.  In  popular  usage  "growth"  and  "de- 
velopment" are  frequently  employed  as  synonymous 
terms,  whereas  the  organic  processes  which  these  terms 
designate  are  quite  distinct  from  each  other  and  are  at 
times  separable. 

The  term  "growth"  indicates  increase  in  quantity. 
Thus  we  may  speak  of  "growth  in  knowledge,"  the  "growth 
of  conviction,"  a  "growing  boy,"  a  "growing  crop,"  a 
"growing  delta,"  or  a  "growing  trade."  It  is  true  that  the 
term  is  not  infrequently  used  to  designate  certain  qualita- 
tive changes  which  were  better  referred  to  under  the  term 
"development." 

Changes  from  simplicity  to  complexity,  from  homo- 
geneity to  heterogeneity,  from  latency  to  epiphany,  are 
properly  spoken  of  as  developmental  changes.  The  archi- 
tect develops  his  plans;  the  photographer  develops  his 
negative;  a  complex  trade  may  develop  from  the  sale  of 
a  single  commodity.  Development  as  a  vital  process 
sums  up  in  itself  these  various  concepts.  As  the  seed  un- 
folds into  the  plant  there  is  manifested  a  change  from  the 
simple  to  the  complex,  from  the  homogeneous  to  the 
heterogeneous,  and  what  was  latent  in  the  seed  is  explicit 
in  the  plant.  It  is  well,  therefore,  in  biology,  in  psy- 

99 


100  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

chology  and  in  education  to  employ  the  term  "growth" 
to  designate  increase  in  quantity  and  to  reserve  the  term 
"development"  for  the  designation  of  the  qualitative 
changes  mentioned. 

Increase  in  quantity  is  the  central  thought  conveyed  by 
the  term  "growth,"  but  the  term  when  applied  to  a  vital 
process  means  much  more  than  this.  We  may,  in  fact, 
distinguish  several  types  of  growth  which  differ  markedly 
from  one  another  while  each  one  of  them  involves  increase 
in  quantity.  The  term  may  be  applied  to  a  building  in 
the  course  of  construction,  to  a  forming  crystal,  to  a  young 
organism,  and  to  the  mind,  but  these  several  processes, 
while  resembling  one  another  in  the  resulting  increase  in 
quantity,  exhibit  striking  differences  in  other  respects. 

In  a  certain  sense,  a  building  in  course  of  construction 
may  be  rightly  said  to  grow.  Its  volume  increases  in  an 
arithmetical  ratio  as  stone  is  laid  upon  stone  or  brick  upon 
brick  in  its  walls.  The  process  consists  of  a  mere  aggre- 
gation of  completed  elements.  Symmetry  and  function 
are  attained  only  in  the  completed  structure.  This  mode 
of  growth  results  from  the  play  of  forces  which  remain 
external  to  the  growing  object. 

The  crystal  may  also  be  said  to  grow.  During  its 
formation  it  exhibits  a  progressive  increase  in  volume. 
This  increase,  however,  is  something  more  than  the  mere 
aggregation  of  completed  parts.  The  process  of  growth 
in  the  crystal  consists  in  the  laying  down  of  layer  after 
layer  of  a  homogeneous  substance  on  the  growing  surfaces. 
This  process  is  more  accurately  described  as  accretion  than 
as  aggregation.  The  growing  crystal  tends  to  remain 
symmetrical  and  functional  throughout  the  entire  process 
of  growth.  It  is  growth  without  a  trace  of  development. 
The  difference  between  the  large  and  the  small  crystals 


MENTAL  GROWTH  101 

of  the  same  substance  is  purely  quantitative.  It  should 
be  further  noted  that  the  process  of  growth  in  the  crystal 
results  from  the  play  of  internal  forces  and  proceeds  in  a 
geometrical  ratio.  The  disadvantage  of  using  the  same 
term  to  designate  processes  that  differ  in  so  many  essential 
respects  as  that  exhibited  by  the  building  and  the  crystal 
is  obvious,  and  the  difficulty  is  still  further  increased  by 
the  use  of  the  term  to  designate  a  vital  process  which 
differs  radically  from  the  two  processes  just  noted. 

Living  organisms  that  increase  in  volume  are  said  to 
grow,  but  the  growth  is  not  by  aggregation  of  completed 
parts  as  in  the  building,  nor  yet  by  accretion  as  in  the 
crystal,  but  by  intussusception.  The  materials  used  in 
this  growth  are  heterogeneous.  A  homogeneous  food 
supply  which  is  demanded  by  the  crystal  would  not  suffice 
for  the  growing  organism.  Moreover,  unlike  the  crystal, 
once  more  the  growing  organism  may,  and  usually  does, 
exhibit  simultaneously  a  progressive  development. 

When  the  term  "growth"  is  imported  into  the  realm 
of  mind  it  evidently  must  be  applied  analogically  since 
mental  content  is  necessarily  devoid  of  volume,  but  which 
of  the  three  meanings  of  the  term  as  applied  to  physical 
processes  should  be  carried  over  into  the  mental  world? 
If  the  term  is  to  have  any  value  hi  psychology,  it  must  con- 
vey a  definite  meaning  and  the  first  step  in  determining 
this  meaning  must  be  the  ascertaining  of  the  process  in 
the  physical  world  that  is  strictly  analogous  to  the  mental 
process.  Naturally  organic  growth  will  be  the  first  to 
challenge  attention,  not  only  as  supplying  apt  analogies 
to  mental  processes  but  as  furnishing  real  homologies,  since 
both  the  mind  and  the  living  organism  exhibit  vital  pro- 
cesses that  are  subject  to  the  general  laws  of  life. 

A  consideration  of  the  likenesses  and  differences  ex- 


102  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

hibited  by  these  several  processes  of  growth  will  not  only 
aid  in  securing  a  correct  use  of  terms,  but  it  can  scarcely 
fail  to  prove  illuminating  to  the  teacher  whose  duty  con- 
sists in  large  measure  in  ministering  to  the  processes  of 
growth  and  development  as  they  occur  in  the  physical 
and  mental  life  of  the  children  committed  to  his  care. 

The  growth  of  living  beings  resembles  that  of  crystals  in 
at  least  five  important  respects,  in  all  of  which  both  the 
crystal  and  the  growing  organism  differ  from  the  type  of 
growth  exhibited  by  a  building  in  course  of  construction. 

1.  In  the  living  being  and  in  the  crystal  the  process  of 
growth  is  governed  by  internal  forces,  whereas  in  the  grow- 
ing building  the  process  is  controlled  wholly  by  external 
forces  applied  from  without  by  the  builders. 

2.  In  the  growing  organism  and  in  the  growing  crystal 
all  the  materials  involved  in  the  growth  become  functional 
as  soon  as  they  are  incorporated  into  the  growing  structure, 
whereas  in  the  growing  building  the  incorporated  materials 
never  function  actively  in  the  process  of  growth  and  all 
other  function  is  suspended  until  the  growth  is  completed. 

3.  The  growth  of  the  crystal  and  the  growth  of  the 
organism  proceed  in  a  geometrical  ratio,  whereas  the 
growth  of  the  building  proceeds  in  an  arithmetical  ratio. 

4.  In  the  crystal  and  in  the  growing  organism  symmetry 
is  preserved  throughout  the  process,  whereas  in  the  build- 
ing symmetry  is  attained  only  in  the  completed  structure. 

5.  Finally,  the  form  of  the  growing  building  is  deter- 
mined wholly  by  an  external  cause,  e.g.,  the  mind  of  the 
architect,  whereas  the  form  of  the  crystal  and  the  form  of 
the  living  organism  are  determined  from  within. 

But  while  there  may  thus  be  traced  a  five-fold  resem- 
blance between  growing  crystals  and  growing  organisms, 


MENTAL  GROWTH  103 

there  may  also  be  found  many  striking  differences  between 
these  two  processes  of  growth.  The  following  four  char- 
acteristic differences  are  noteworthy: 

1.  The  crystal  grows  by  accretion,  whereas  the  living 
organism  grows  by  intussusception. 

2.  The  growth  of  the  crystal  is  homogeneous  throughout, 
whereas  the  growth  of  the  living  organism  presents  a  series 
of  developmental  phases  in  which  things  latent  in  each 
previous  phase  are  developed  in  a  subsequent  phase. 

3.  The  material  used  by  the  growing  crystal  is  homo- 
geneous, whereas  the  food  of  the  living  being  varies  within 
certain  limits. 

4.  The  parts  of  the  crystal  are  homogeneous  and  remain 
so  throughout  the  entire  process  of  growth,  whereas  the 
parts  of  the  living  being  are  heterogeneous  and  become 
increasingly  so  throughout  the  process  of  growth. 

Now,  it  may  be  observed  that  mental  growth  in  all  its 
phases  exhibits  a  striking  resemblance  to  the  process  of 
organic  growth.  This  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that 
both  processes  are  vital  and  that  they  are  in  consequence 
both  governed  by  the  same  fundamental  laws.  In 
spite  of  this  fact,  however,  the  processes  of  organic 
growth  and  of  mental  growth  are  analogous  rather  than 
homologous. 

Some  of  the  more  striking  likenesses  and  differences 

FOUR  TYPES  OF  GROWTH 

Elements  Building  Crystal  Organism  Mind 

Source  of  food  Environment    Environment  Environment  Environment 

Source  of  energy  Environment    Internal  Internal  Internal 

Incorporated  food  Inert  Functional       Functional  Functional 

Ratio  of  growth  Arithmetical     Geometrical     Geometrical  Geometrical 

Character  of  food  Heterogeneous  Homogeneous  Heterogeneous  Heterogeneous 

Parts  of  structure  Heterogeneous  Homogeneous  Heterogeneous  Heterogeneous 

Nature  of  process  Aggregation      Accretion         Intussusception  Intussusception 

Form  determination  External  Internal  Internal  Internal 

Symmetrical  Completed        Throughout     Throughout  Throughout 

Form  modified  by  Environment    Environment  Environment  Environment 

Successive  stages  Indeterminate  Uniform  Developmental  Developmental 


104  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

observable  among  these  four  types  of  growth  are  set  forth 
in  the  table  on  the  preceding  page. 

Naturally  the  food  that  ministers  to  growth  in  all  forms 
is  derived  from  the  environment.  This  is  a  corollary  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  persistence  of  matter.  The  production 
of  an  increase  of  matter,  however  slight,  would  call  for 
creative  activity.  Similarly,  the  ultimate  source  of  all 
the  energy  exhibited  in  the  various  types  of  growth  must 
be  sought  in  the  environment.  This  is  a  corollary  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  conservation  of  energy.  The  appearance  in 
a  growing  structure  of  energy  in  however  minute  quantity 
that  is  not  derived  from  environment  would  be  as  great  a 
miracle  as  the  sudden  appearance  of  matter  that  was  not 
previously  in  existence  in  some  other  form.  In  the  table 
above,  the  energy  exhibited  in  the  growing  building  is 
indicated  as  coming  from  the  environment,  whereas  an 
internal  source  is  assigned  to  the  energy  exhibited  in  the 
remaining  three  types.  This,  of  course,  merely  means  that 
the  energy  of  these  latter  types  is  taken  into  the  organism 
in  latent  form  and  released  within  the  organism  itself. 
The  immediate,  not  the  ultimate,  source  of  the  energy 
exhibited  is  internal.  The  important  thing  to  note  is  that 
the  energy  required  to  further  the  process  of  growth  is 
resident  in  the  previously  incorporated  foodstuff.  As  a 
consequence  of  this,  increased  growth  means  increased 
rate  of  growth  or  increased  tendency  to  growth,  whereas 
in  those  forms  of  growth  where  the  immediate  source  of 
energy  must  be  sought  in  the  environment,  increased 
growth  does  not  imply  increased  rate  of  growth  nor  in- 
creased tendency  to  grow.  This  consideration  should 
have  great  weight  with  us  in  our  attempts  to  secure  the 
most  advantageous  form  of  mental  growth  in  the  children 
who  are  being  educated. 


MENTAL  GROWTH  105 

Growth  in  all  its  forms  is  subject  to  modification  by 
environmental  influences.  While  the  axis  of  symmetry 
in  the  growing  crystal  is  determined  by  the  nature  of  the 
substance,  nevertheless  environmental  forces  may  prevent 
normal  growth  on  one  or  more  facets,  thus  leaving  the 
stone  devoid  of  external  symmetry  which,  however,  the 
lapidary  may  restore  by  cutting  off  the  excessive  growths. 

The  modifications  induced  in  living  beings  by  environ- 
mental influences  are  everywhere  discernible.  By  de- 
stroying certain  members  of  the  species  and  allowing  the 
remaining  or  selected  members  to  perpetuate  then*  char- 
acteristic variations,  environment  modifies  the  race  of 
plant  or  animal.  By  artificial  selection,  the  florist,  the 
horticulturist  and  the  breeder  modify  the  forms  of  plants 
or  animals  in  which  they  are  interested.  Environment 
modifies  the  individual  no  less  than  the  race.  Sunshine, 
moisture,  soil,  climate  and  prevailing  winds  modify  forms 
of  plant  life  and  in  a  sense  limit  their  growth.  In  like 
manner,  the  quality  and  quantity  of  food,  occupation  and 
various  other  environmental  influences  modify  the  forms 
of  animal  life. 

Environment  exerts  a  more  potent  influence  on  the 
growing  mind  and  heart  of  man  than  it  does  on  the  grow- 
ing crystal  or  the  growing  organism,  and  in  this  observable 
facts  are  in  harmony  with  current  theory.  Not  only  is 
"the  adjustment  of  internal  to  external  relations"  charac- 
teristic of  all  human  beings,  but  we  should  not  be  far  from 
the  truth  were  we  to  assume  that  the  place  of  any  being  in 
the  scale  of  life  is  determined  by  the  degree  in  which  it 
possesses  the  quality  of  plasticity  or  the  power  of  internal 
adjustment  to  external  environments.  This  would  lead 
us  to  expect  that  mental  life  hi  its  growth  would  be  more 
deeply  influenced  by  environmental  conditions  than  in  any 


106  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

other  form  of  growth.  In  fact,  the  educative  process 
consists  mainly  in  so  directing  environmental  influences 
that  they  may  produce  advantageous  modifications  of  the 
individual  and  thus  adjust  him  effectively  to  a  given 
environment. 

No  matter  how  profoundly  environment  may  modify 
the  growth  of  the  living  being,  it  is  not  within  its  compe- 
tency to  determine  the  type  or  form  of  a  living  being. 
The  tree  may  be  modified  by  a  trade  wind  and  be  twisted 
and  dwarfed  by  it,  but  the  influence  which  causes  one  seed 
to  unfold  into  an  oak  tree  and  another  into  a  rose  is  not 
resident  in  the  environment.  In  like  manner,  each  human 
soul  contains  within  itself  that  which  gives  the  stamp  of 
individuality.  Environment  may  prevent  the  individual 
from  fully  or  adequately  realizing  the  beauty  or  power  of 
this  inborn  form  or  it  may  provide  conditions  which  will 
render  a  reasonably  full  realization  of  the  inward  gift  an 
actuality,  but  its  effect  throughout  can  never  exceed  that 
of  a  modification  of  the  realization  sought  by  the  inward 
impulse. 

Physical  environment  may,  and  often  does,  profoundly 
modify  the  conscious  life  of  man.  A  race  that  has  dwelt 
for  any  considerable  time  in  the  mountains  exhibits 
mental  and  moral  characteristics  which  differ  markedly 
from  those  of  a  kindred  race  that  has  dwelt  for  an  equal 
length  of  time  on  the  plain.  The  dwellers  in  the  frigid 
North  differ  in  many  ways  from  the  children  of  the  South. 
The  denizens  of  the  land  of  perpetual  fog  are  easily  dis- 
tinguishable from  the  inhabitants  of  sunny  climes,  but  it 
is  in  the  human  environment  of  man  that  we  must  seek 
for  the  most  potent  modifying  influences.  No  man  may 
hope  to  lift  himself  far  above  the  social  group  into  which 
he  was  born  and  in  which  he  lives  and  moves.  This 


MENTAL  GROWTH  107 

truth  has  been  recognized  in  every  race  and  clime  and  it 
has  been  coined  into  the  adages  of  many  peoples.  Such 
sayings  as  "Similes  cum  similibus  facilime  congregantur," 
"Birds  of  a  feather  flock  together,"  etc.,  do  not  express 
the  causal  relationship.  The  process,  however,  is  not 
merely  selective;  it  is  dynamic.  "Evil  companionship 
corrupts  good  manners,"  and  the  stimulating  compan- 
ionship of  noble  men  and  women  can  scarcely  fail  to  bring 
out  the  best  that  is  in  any  individual. 

The  individual  who  would  realize  to  the  fullest  extent 
the  highest  potentialities  of  his  own  life,  must  seek  the 
most  favorable  environment,  physical  and  social,  and  he 
must  strive  to  lift  up  the  social  group  in  which  he  moves. 
Whether  we  wish  it  or  not,  we  are  by  divine  decree  our 
brother's  keeper.  A  railroad  may  open  its  lines  through 
an  unpopulated  country,  but  if  it  is  to  succeed,  it  must 
encourage  immigration  and  build  up  the  prosperity  of 
the  communities  which  it  serves.  It  is  a  short-sighted 
business  policy  for  any  individual  or  firm  to  seek  to  monop- 
olize all  the  profits  in  the  trade.  The  law  governing  moral 
and  intellectual  development  is  not  dissimilar.  In  labor- 
ing for  the  betterment  of  our  fellowman,  economically, 
physically,  morally  and  spiritually,  we  are  at  the  same 
tune  laboring  most  effectually  for  our  own  highest  good. 

The  individual  from  birth  cut  off  from  all  intercourse 
with  his  fellowmen,  even  if  he  could  support  life,  would 
realize  but  little  of  the  potentiality  of  his  own  being. 
The  hermit  brought  with  him  to  the  desert  rich  treas- 
ures from  the  common  human  store  house.  Otherwise 
his  life  would  have  been  comparatively  worthless.  It 
is,  in  fact,  easy  to  discern  the  profound  and  many-sided 
influences  of  environment  on  the  growing  life  of  OUT  chil- 
dren and  youths.  But  all  this  should  not  blind  us  to  the 


108  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

fact  that  the  determining  cause  of  character  is  not  in 
environment,  but  in  the  depths  of  the  individual  soul. 
No  influence,  not  even  that  of  Divine  Grace,  is  permitted 
to  violate  the  sanctuary  of  life  and  alter  the  inward  stamp 
given  to  the  individual  soul.  The  multitude  who  fed  on 
the  miraculous  loaves  and  fishes  followed  Jesus  to  the 
other  side  of  the  lake  and  when  He  told  them  of  the  Bread 
from  heaven  on  which  they  must  feed  if  they  would  be 
saved,  they  could  not  believe  Him  and  they  went  away 
and  walked  no  more  with  Him.  The  Master  summed  up 
the  case  completely  when  He  said  "Amen,  Amen,  I  say 
unto  you,  you  cannot  come  unto  Me  unless  it  be  given  to 
you  by  My  Father,  Who  is  in  heaven."  Cardinal  Newman 
reminds  us  of  this  same  awful  responsibility  that  rests 
upon  the  individual  when  he  says  that  "Christ  Who  died  for 
all  yet  shall  not  save  all."  Even  the  angels  were  obliged 
to  make  the  choice  on  which  their  eternal  destiny  rested. 
It  is  the  business  of  education  to  provide,  as  far  as  may 
be,  an  environment  which  will  permit  of  the  fullest  reali- 
zation of  each  individual  life.  It  may  readily  prevent 
this  realization;  it  never  can  transcend  it.  Those  teachers 
who  fail  to  recognize  the  fact  that  their  function  is  to 
minister  to  the  processes  of  growth  and  development  in 
the  mind  of  the  child,  proceed  with  their  work  after  the 
manner  of  architects  and  builders.  They  delve  in  the 
mines  of  truth  and  make  their  bricks  of  knowledge  with 
which  they  proceed  to  build  up  stores  of  information  in  the 
minds  of  the  pupils.  In  this  procedure  the  intelligence  of  the 
pupil  is  used  to  recognize  the  several  parcels  of  knowledge, 
to  attach  to  each  of  them  an  appropriate  label,  and  to  store 
them  away  in  the  memory  in  accordance  with  any  system 
that  will  enable  him  to  find  them  whenever  a  future  need 
arises. 


MENTAL  GROWTH  109 

The  energy  expended  in  building  up  this  accumulation 
of  knowledge  proceeds  rather  from  the  mind  of  the  teacher 
than  from  that  of  the  pupil.  The  accumulation  itself  is  a 
mere  memory  load.  It  lacks  vital  organization,  resembling 
the  structure  of  a  building  rather  than  that  of  a  growing 
organism.  Under  these  conditions  the  individual  truths 
do  not  become  functional  in  the  mind  of  the  pupil  either  in 
their  mutual  relationships  or  with  reference  to  past  or 
future  mental  growths.  On  the  contrary,  just  as  each 
brick  placed  in  the  wall  renders  the  placing  of  subsequent 
bricks  more  difficult,  so  each  parcel  of  knowledge  that  is 
stored  away  in  the  mind  without  having  been  lifted  into 
its  life  renders  it  more  difficult  to  place  all  subsequent 
parcels  of  knowledge.  Memory,  of  course,  like  other 
faculties,  grows  in  power  with  exercise,  but  there  are  few  who 
would  deny  that  the  memorizing  of  the  one  hundredth  unre- 
lated fact  is  more  difficult  than  the  memorizing  of  the  first. 

Among  the  teacher's  functions  must  be  counted  that  of 
selecting  appropriate  mental  food  for  the  child  mind  and 
that  of  presenting  this  food  in  a  form  which  will  render  its 
assimilation  by  the  mind  of  the  child  profitable.  An  apt 
illustration  of  the  results  to  be  expected  where  the  teacher 
fails  to  perform  these  functions  adequately  is  given  by 
Dr.  McMurray.1  "At  six  the  child  is  morally  immature; 
at  fifteen  perhaps  the  die  has  been  stamped.  This  youth- 
ful wilderness  must  be  crossed.  We  can't  turn  back.  There 
is  no  other  way  of  reaching  the  promised  land.  But  there 
are  rebellions  and  haltings  and  disorderly  scenes. 

"This  is  a  tortuous  road.  Isn't  there  a  quicker  and 
easier  way?  The  most  speedily  constructed  road  across 
this  region  is  a  short  treatise  on  morals  for  teacher  and 

1  Charles  A.  McMurray,  Elements  of  General  Methods,  New 
York,  1903,  p.  85. 


110  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

pupil.  In  this  way  it  is  possible  to  have  all  the  virtues 
and  faults  tabulated,  labeled,  and  transferred  in  brief 
space  to  the  minds  of  the  children  (if  the  discipline  is 
rigorous  enough).  Swallow  a  catechism,  reduced  to  a 
verbal  memory  product.  Pack  away  the  essence  of 
morals  hi  a  few  general  laws  and  rules,  and  have  the  chil- 
dren learn  them.  Some  day  they  may  understand.  What 
astounding  faith  in  memory  cram  and  dry  forms!  We  can 
pave  such  a  road  through  the  fields  of  moral  science,  but 
when  a  child  has  traveled  it,  is  he  a  whit  better?  No 
such  paved  road  is  good  for  anything.  It  isn't  even 
comfortable.  It  has  been  tried  dozens  of  times  in  much 
less  important  fields  of  knowledge  than  morals.  .  .  .  To 
begin  with  abstract  moral  teaching,  or  to  put  faith  in  it, 
is  to  misunderstand  children.  In  morals,  as  in  other 
forms  of  knowledge,  children  are  overwhelmingly  inter- 
ested in  personal  and  individual  examples,  things  which 
have  form,  color,  action.  The  attempt  to  sum  up  the  im- 
portant truths  of  a  subject  and  present  them  as  ab- 
stractions to  children  is  almost  certain  to  be  a  failure, 
pedagogically  considered.  It  has  been  demonstrated 
again  and  again,  even  hi  high  schools,  that  botany, 
chemistry,  physics,  and  zoology  cannot  be  taught  by 
such  brief  scientific  compendia  of  rules  and  principles." 

A  generation  or  two  ago  many  branches  of  knowledge 
were  taught  in  this  way,  There  were  catechisms  of  his- 
tory, of  grammar  and  of  arithmetic.  Even  at  the  present 
hour  there  exist  in  our  midst  schools  hi  which  geography 
is  still  taught  in  this  manner,  and  in  which  language 
study  consists  in  memorizing  the  rules  of  grammar,  and 
long  lists  of  unf  amiliar  words,  schools  in  which  the  children 
are  required  to  learn  by  rote  the  rule  in  arithmetic  before 
working  the  examples. 


MENTAL  GROWTH  111 

All  such  procedures  result  in  dead  accumulations 
instead  of  living  growth.  These  accumulations  tend  to 
paralyze  the  mind  of  the  child  and  to  render  it  a  mere  re- 
ceptacle for  words  and  dead  formulae.  All  originality  and 
initiative  disappear,  and  the  child,  having  dwelt  in  such  a 
school  during  the  years  required  by  law,  leaves  it  without 
enduring  interest  in  any  subject  taught  within  its  walls. 

Psychology  and  pedagogy  demand  a  return  to  the 
method  of  teaching  which  was  employed  by  the 
Master,  who  so  frequently  spoke  of  the  truths  which  He 
came  into  the  world  to  impart  to  the  children  of  men,  but 
which  He  refused  to  announce  to  those  who  were  not 
ready  to  assimilate  them  and  render  them  functional  in 
their  lives  and  conduct. 

The  temptation  of  the  teacher  to  ignore  the  fact  that 
the  temple  of  life  and  mind  can  be  built  by  none  other 
than  by  the  inward  dweller  is  so  persistent  that  it  may  be 
well,  even  at  the  risk  of  repetition,  to  examine  a  little  more 
closely  the  meaning  of  the  law  of  growth  by  intussus- 
ception which  is  the  only  law  under  which  the  mind  and 
the  heart  of  the  child  can  grow. 

Successive  additions  of  the  same  quantity  constitute 
an  arithmetical  ratio;  successive  multiplications  by  the 
same  quantity  constitute  a  geometrical  ratio.  Simple 
interest  is  an  illustration  of  the  former,  compound 
interest  is  an  illustration  of  the  latter.  The  smith  who 
receives  2  cents  for  each  of  the  thirty-two  nails  with  which 
he  fastens  the  shoes  on  a  horse  is  paid  64  cents  for  his 
work;  but  were  he  paid  in  a  geometrical  ratio,  receiving 
1  mill  for  the  first  nail,  2  mills  for  the  second,  4  for  the 
third,  etc.,  the  shoeing  of  one  horse  would  make  him  a 
millionaire. 

In  all  growths  in  which  the  energy  expended  is  derived 


112  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

immediately  from  the  environment,  the  ratio  of  growth  is 
arithmetical.  The  growth  increments  contribute  in  no 
way  to  the  production  of  subsequent  growths,  while  they 
do,  for  the  most  part,  constitute  an  impediment  to  further 
growth  which  makes  an  ever-increasing  demand  on  the 
external  and  unaugmented  force  causing  the  growth. 
The  converse  of  this  is  true  of  the  crystal.  The  energy 
expended  in  the  growth  is  at  least  partially  resident  in 
the  crystal  itself;  hence  as  its  surfaces  are  enlarged  the 
ratio  of  its  growth  increases;  each  molecule  that  is  added 
to  the  growing  surface  of  the  crystal  helps  to  secure  the 
addition  of  all  subsequent  molecules. 

In  all  organic  growth,  as  in  the  growth  of  crystals,  the 
energy  expended  is  released  within  the  growing  structure, 
hence  each  molecule  that  is  added  to  the  living  tissue 
remains  an  active  agent  thereafter  in  the  incorporation  of 
all  subsequent  molecules.  In  this  type  of  growth  begin- 
nings may  be  infinitesimal  but  the  small  beginnings  are 
more  than  compensated  for  by  the  fact  that  growth  pro- 
ceeds hi  a  geometrical  ratio.  If  this  truth  is  clearly 
realized  by  the  teacher,  it  will  make  him  patient  with  the 
slowness  of  the  process  in  the  early  days  of  mental  growth, 
and  it  should  lead  him  into  an  understanding  of  the  fact 
that  the  adaptability  of  the  truth  which  he  presents  to 
the  mind  of  the  child  is  of  much  greater  consequence  than 
the  quantity  of  truth  which  the  child  assimilates.  The 
ultimate  potency  of  this  inward  principle  of  growth,  where 
environmental  conditions  permit,  is  so  great  that  it  should 
remove  from  the  teacher  all  solicitude  concerning  the 
quantity  of  the  truth  assimilated  by  the  pupil. 

A  striking  example  of  this  truth  may  be  found  in  the 
growing  tendency  of  the  micro-coccus.  This  bacterium 
is  a  spherule  of  living  matter  whose  diameter  is  not  more 


MENTAL  GROWTH  113 

than  one  micro-millimeter  or  the  one  twenty-five-thous- 
andth part  of  an  inch.  It  would  therefore  take  twenty- 
five  thousand  micro-cocci  placed  side  by  side  to  measure 
one  inch.  If  the  micro-cocci  be  reduced  to  the  form  of 
cubes,  29,841,482,047,361  micro-cocci  would  fit  hi  the 
space  of  one  cubic  inch.  1,000,000  micro-cocci  rolled 
into  one  would  make  a  barely  visible  speck  one-tenth  of  a 
millimeter  in  diameter,  and  it  would  require  456,490  of 
these  specks  or  456,490,000,000  micro-cocci  to  equal  in 
size  an  ordinary  pea  five  millimeters  in  diameter.  Or  if 
it  be  preferred  to  view  the  matter  in  another  way,  the 
volume  of  a  micro-cocci  is  to  a  pea  as  a  pea  is  to  a  sphere 
eighty  feet,  six  inches  in  diameter,  or  it  would  take  as 
many  micro-cocci  rolled  into  one  to  equal  a  pea  hi  bulk 
as  there  are  peas  in  222,033  bushels  of  peas. 

It  will  be  conceded  that  a  single  micro-coccus  is,  in 
truth,  a  small  beginning,  but  under  favorable  environ- 
mental conditions,  the  micro-coccus  will  grow  to  double 
its  size,  and  divide  into  two  by  simple  fission  in  the  course 
of  one  hour.  At  the  end  of  the  second  hour  there  would 
be  four  micro-cocci  and  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  hour, 
sixty-four.  This  is  still  admittedly  a  small  quantity,  but 
the  increase  is  relatively  great  and  that  is  the  all-important 
consideration,  for  at  the  end  of  twenty-four  hours  the 
number  of  bacteria  produced  would  reach  16,777,216,  and 
at  the  end  of  the  forty-eighth  hour  281,474,976,710,656, 
or  a  little  over  nine  cubic  inches.  In  three  days  the  grow- 
ing volume  of  bacteria  would  have  reached  the  enormous 
proportions  of  ninety  thousand  cubic  feet;  in  four  days, 
the  mass  would  measure  more  than  17,000,000  cubic  miles 
and  before  the  end  of  the  fifth  day  it  would  have  exceeded 
that  of  the  entire  earth. 

Of  course,  this   growth   rs   never   realized   and   from 


114  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  nature  of  the  case  it  never  can  be  realized,  but  the 
failure  of  realization  is  due,  not  to  the  inward  force  which 
lies  back  of  all  vital  growth,  but  to  the  failure  of  suitable 
environmental  conditions.  This  tendency  to  grow  in  a 
geometrical  ratio  is  inherent  in  everything  that  lives.  In 
physical  life  it  would  incorporate  all  the  suitable  food 
material  in  the  world.  The  only  limitations  recognized 
are  the  impassable  barriers  of  physical  environment;  and 
what  is  true  in  this  respect  of  living  things  in  general  is 
preeminently  true  of  the  mind.  By  its  very  constitution 
it  seeks  to  incorporate  into  itself  all  the  truth,  all  the 
beauty  and  all  the  goodness  in  the  world  and  with  an  ever- 
growing hunger  it  remains  dissatisfied  until  it  is  immersed 
in  the  infinite.  "Thou  hast  made  our  hearts  for  Thee, 
O  Lord,  and  they  cannot  rest  until  they  rest  in  Thee." 

The  mind  that  is  not  unduly  burdened  with  memory 
loads  and  that  has  learned  to  assimilate  whatever  it  takes 
into  itself  within  reasonable  time,  grows  in  strength,  in 
agility  and  in  joy  from  day  to  day.  Each  advance  made 
by  such  a  mind  opens  out  wider  horizons  and  brings  new 
truths  to  view.  However  slow  the  process  of  mental 
growth  may  seem  in  its  initial  stages,  the  final  results  are 
incalculably  greater  when  measured  even  by  quantitative 
standards  than  those  which  could  be  obtained  by  any 
process  of  accumulating  and  memorizing  digests  of 
unrelated  truths. 

The  nature  of  the  child  mind  and  not  the  dicta  of  cur- 
riculum makers  nor  the  whims  and  theories  of  teachers 
should  determine  the  type  of  growth  to  which  the  edu- 
cative process  must  minister.  In  this  matter  the  condi- 
tions obtaining  in  the  fields  of  knowledge  give  the  teacher 
no  choice.  Present  social  and  economic  conditions 
render  power  and  plasticity  in  the  pupil  more  necessary 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  115 

than  accumulations  of  knowledge,  and  the  manifold 
applications  of  science  to  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life 
demand  a  wider  range  than  can  well  be  imparted  by  any 
method  of  mere  accumulation.  Objective  methods  in 
the  laboratories  of  science,  and  in  the  great  laboratories 
of  the  commercial  and  industrial  world,  have  so  enlarged 
the  domain  of  human  knowledge  that  only  those  whose 
minds  have  been  helped  to  grow  along  natural  lines  can 
ever  hope  to  maintain  a  position  on  the  growing  surface  of 
human  knowledge. 

In  our  day  of  extreme  specialization,  each  worker  can 
hope  to  produce  in  only  one  very  small  subdivision  of 
human  knowledge,  but  if  he  is  to  build  well  even  here  his 
mind  must  have  received  a  many-sided  development.  All 
avenues  of  truth  must  be  open  to  him  so  that  the  work 
of  countless  other  groups  of  investigators  may  have  its 
bearing  and  effect  upon  his  own  particular  work.  The 
higher  the  specialization,  the  greater  is  the  need  of  a  broad 
basis  and  of  a  broad  sympathy  in  the  various  fields  of 
human  knowledge  and  of  human  culture.  The  languages 
become  necessary  as  tools  and  means  of  intercommunica- 
tion. The  fundamental  concepts  of  science  are  necessary 
to  give  balance  and  poise  to  judgment.  A  diversified 
knowledge  is  needed  to  meet  each  new  emergency  that 
arises  hi  a  rapidly  changing  environment.  The  powers  of 
observation  need  training  along  many  lines.  For  those  in 
the  humbler  walks  of  lif e  as  well  as  for  productive  scholars 
the  horizon  of  truth  has  widened  indefinitely. 

The  hopeless  impossibility  of  obtaining  the  required 
results  by  any  method  which  aims  merely  at  accumulation 
of  knowledge  is  compelling  a  change  from  didactic  to 
organic  methods  throughout  the  field  of  education.  The 
equipment  of  knowledge  necessary  for  success  in  the 


116  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

present  struggle  for  existence  is  so  vast  that  it  can  be 
obtained  only  under  the  laws  of  life  which  secure 
growth  hi  a  geometrical  ratio.  In  spite,  however,  of  the 
quantity  of  knowledge  demanded  for  successful  achieve- 
ment under  present  social  and  economic  conditions,  it  is 
far  less  important  than  the  quality  of  the  knowledge  or  the 
way  in  which  the  knowledge  possessed  is  related  to  the 
mind.  Knowledge  that  is  merely  memorized  is  retained 
in  the  form  in  which  it  was  imparted  except  for  the  abra- 
sion and  decay  which  always  appear  in  due  course  of  time. 
When,  on  the  other  hand,  the  truth  taken  into  the  mind  is 
assimilated  it  becomes  a  part  of  the  mind  itself  and  par- 
takes of  the  life  and  vigor  and  growing  impube  of  the 
mind.  The  only  limit  set  in  nature  for  the  growth  of  such 
a  mind  is  the  limit  of  the  created  universe  itself.  The 
most  obvious  deduction  from  this  line  of  reasoning  is  that 
the  quantity  of  truth  given  to  the  child  hi  the  beginning 
of  the  educative  process  is  the  supremely  negligible  factor. 
What  difference,  it  may  be  asked,  does  it  make  whether 
we  watch  the  growth  resulting  from  a  single  bacterium 
or  from  a  cubic  yard  of  bacteria,  since,  if  environmental 
conditions  permitted  it,  even  the  single  bacterium  would 
have  converted  the  whole  earth  into  its  own  substance 
inside  of  a  week. 

In  presenting  a  truth  to  a  child  the  only  thing  that  need 
concern  the  teacher  is  to  see  to  it  that  the  conditions 
surrounding  the  child's  mental  growth  be  such  as  to  secure 
the  assimilation  of  the  truth.  She  may  rest  assured  that 
however  slow  this  process  may  seem  in  its  initial  stages 
the  results  in  the  course  of  time  will  meet  her  most 
sanguine  expectations. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT 

The  educative  process  is  concerned  with  the  production 
and  guidance  of  mental  growth  but  it  is  far  more  inti- 
mately concerned  with  the  promotion  and  the  control  of 
the  process  of  development  through  which  the  mind  of 
the  infant  is  progressively  changed  into  the  mind  of  the 
adult.  It  is,  in  fact,  for  the  promotion  and  guidance  of 
these  two  processes  in  the  minds  of  the  young  that  educa- 
tional agencies  have  been  called  into  existence  by  society. 

No  teacher  is  equipped  for  his  work  until  he  has  a  more 
or  less  definite  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  mental  growth 
and  mental  development  and  of  the  way  in  which  these 
two  processes  may  be  influenced  and  directed  towards  a 
desirable  culmination.  It  is  the  business  of  the  Psy- 
chology of  Education  to  instruct  the  teacher  in  these 
matters  but  a  certain  understanding  of  them  in  their 
wider  implications  is  an  indispensable  element  in  any 
adequate  presentation  of  the  Philosophy  of  Education. 
It  will  be  necessary,  therefore,  to  give  here  a  more  or  less 
detailed  account  of  what  is  meant  by  mental  develop- 
ment and  this  we  believe  can  best  be  accomplished  by 
comparing  various  types  of  the  process  generally  indi- 
cated by  the  term  "development." 

Strictly  speaking,  there  are  no  stages  in  the  growth  of 
crystals  The  process  involved  remains  uniform  through- 
out. The  large  crystals  differ  from  the  small  crystals  of 
the  same  substance  in  size  only.  All  the  parts  of  the 
crystal  are  homogeneous  and  remain  so  throughout  the 
entire  process  of  growth.  The  axes  of  symmetry  in  the 
smallest  crystal  meet  one  another  at  the  same  angles  as 
those  in  the  largest.  The  essence  of  the  crystal,  the  idea 

117 


118  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

embodied  in  it,  is  as  completely  expressed  in  the  smallest 
crystal  as  in  the  largest.  The  successive  stages  of  its 
growth  present  no  new  phase,  no  new  idea;  they  differ 
from  one  another  only  in  the  extent  of  the  growth  along 
lines  that  are  determined  and  expressed  in  the  smallest 
crystal.  The  crystal  presents  a  type  of  growth  without 
a  trace  or  a  suggestion  of  development.  The  converse 
of  all  this  is  true  of  each  of  the  other  three  types  of  growth 
discussed  in  the  preceding  chapter 

Each  successive  stage  through  which  a  building  passes 
in  the  course  of  its  construction  embodies  a  distinctive 
phase  of  the  architect's  plan.  There  is  no  rigid  sequence, 
however,  in  these  stages,  nor  is  the  subsequent  stage 
always  necessarily  determined  by  the  preceding  stage. 

The  lines  of  the  crystal's  growth  are  explicitly  laid 
down  in  the  newly  formed  crystal.  The  phases  of  the 
developing  organism  and  their  sequence  are  contained 
implicitly  in  the  germ,  but  the  foundation  stones  of  the 
building  do  not  contain,  either  explicitly  or  implicity,  the 
idea  of  the  completed  structure,  nor  do  they  determine 
the  sequence  in  the  stages  of  its  construction.  The  plan 
is  not  an  active  agent  in  the  growing  building;  it  originates 
in  the  mind  of  the  architect  and  is  expressed  by  him  in 
blue-prints  and  specifications  before  it  is  embodied  by 
the  builder  in  the  successive  stages  of  the  growing  struc- 
ture. The  sequence  of  these  stages  is  determined  in  its 
broadest  outlines,  such  as  foundation  and  superstructure, 
walls  and  roof,  by  environmental  forces,  but  the  details 
wait  upon  the  convenience  of  the  builder.  He  may 
complete  each  wing  in  succession  or  he  may  carry  forward 
the  entire  building  simultaneously;  he  may  lay  down  the 
floors  before  plastering  the  walls  or  he  may  reverse  this 
process. 


MENTTAL  DEVELOPMENT  119 

The  growing  building,  in  so  far  as  it  presents  a  series  of 
stages  that  differ  from  one  another,  a  series  in  which  the 
simpler  and  the  less  perfect  previous  stage  is  in  a  measure 
a  preparation  for  the  subsequent  stage,  suggests  the 
process  of  organic  development.  Nevertheless,  the  analogy 
between  the  so-called  development  of  a  building  and  the 
development  exhibited  in  a  developing  organism  is  remote. 

The  living  organism  begins  its  separate  existence  as  an 
apparently  structureless  germ,  and  it  reaches  its  full 
epiphany  in  the  adult  stage  by  passing  through  a  series 
of  developmental  phases  that  differ  in  many  respects 
from  the  series  of  stages  through  which  a  building  passes 
hi  the  course  of  its  construction.  In  the  first  place  the 
successive  phases  in  a  developing  organism  are  linked 
together  hi  a  rigid  causal  sequence.  Each  previous  phase 
in  this  series  is  both  an  adequate  preparation  for  each 
subsequent  phase  and  its  efficient  cause;  whereas,  in  the 
building,  each  previous  phase  is  merely  a  preparation  for 
a  subsequent  phase;  it  is  hi  no  sense  its  cause. 

Secondly,  it  should  be  noted  that  in  the  developing 
organism  each  successive  phase  is  reached  through  a 
reconstruction  of  the  previous  phase  in  which  things  that 
were  latent  or  dormant  in  the  previous  phase  are  brought 
out  and  rendered  functional  in  the  subsequent  phase; 
whereas  the  successive  stages  hi  the  building  are  mere 
additions,  the  subsequent  calling  for  no  reconstruction  of 
the  previous  stage. 

The  developing  organism  is,  in  a  sense,  a  new,  complete 
and  functional  being  in  each  of  its  developmental  stages. 
The  quality  and  quantity  of  the  food  supply  and  other 
environmental  conditions  may  indeed  retard  the  develop- 
mental process  in  the  growing  organism,  but  they  cannot 
alter  the  sequence  of  its  phases  which  constitute  an  orderly 


120  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

progression  from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  from  the 
homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous,  from  latency  to 
epiphany.  At  times  there  occur  in  the  organic  series 
larval  phases  which  are  sharply  marked  off  from  preceding 
and  following  stages,  such  for  example  as  the  tadpole 
stage  of  the  frog  and  the  grub  stage  of  the  insect.  At 
other  times  the  developmental  phases  shade  off  from  each 
other  by  imperceptible  degrees.  This  is  particularly 
noticeable  hi  the  embryonic  development  of  higher  animals 
where  the  vital  functions  are  performed  for  the  embryo  by 
the  parent. 

The  series  of  phases  through  which  a  higher  organism 
passes  hi  the  course  of  its  development  runs  parallel  to  a 
series  of  distinct  organisms  arranged  in  the  order  of  their 
increasing  complexity.  A  parallel  series  of  organisms  of 
increasing  complexity  have  been  revealed  by  the  fossil 
remains  contained  in  the  earth's  crust.  In  the  latter 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century  these  facts  led  biologists 
to  interpret  the  series  of  developmental  phases  in  the  indi- 
vidual organism  as  a  recapitulation  of  its  race  history. 
This  doctrine  is  usually  expressed  hi  the  phrase:  "Onto- 
geny is  a  recapitulation  of  Phylogeny." 

While  the  series  of  phases  occuring  in  the  development 
of  an  individual  organism  runs  parallel  to  the  series  of 
developmental  phases  which  make  up  the  life  history  of 
the  species,  still  we  must  not  allow  this  to  blind  our 
judgment  to  the  fact  that  in  spite  of  the  many  resemblances 
existing  between  these  two  parallel  series  of  developmental 
phases,  there  are  several  noteworthy  differences.  In  the 
race  history  each  developmental  phase  was  both  physio- 
logical and  morphological.  It  constituted  the  functional 
adjustment  to  the  environmental  conditions  of  adult  life 
end  was  in  consequence  prolonged  in  its  duration  in  some 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  121 

proportion  to  the  duration  of  the  environmental  condi- 
tions. 

In  the  developmental  series  of  the  individual,  on  the 
contrary,  only  the  later  phase  or  phases  are  functional. 
The  duration  and  completeness  of  development  of  each 
phase  diminish  progressively  as  we  pass  backward  from 
the  adult  stage  towards  the  beginnings  of  individual  life. 
Moreover,  each  inherited  trait  tends  to  appear  in  the 
offspring  at  a  somewhat  earlier  age  than  that  at  which  it 
appeared  in  the  ancestor  and  the  more  remote  the  ancestor 
in  the  race  series,  the  earlier,  relatively,  does  the  inherited 
trait  appear  in  the  life  of  the  individual,  until  finally  the 
inherited  phase  ceases  to  be  functional  and  is  included  hi 
the  embryological  period.  In  the  mammal  practically  all 
the  complete  developmental  phases  are  included  within 
the  brief  period  of  embryonic  life.  It  is  true  that  develop- 
ment does  occur  after  birth,  but  this  is  for  the  most  part 
the  mere  working  out  of  details  which  can  scarcely  be 
looked  upon  as  constituting  a  separate  stage  of  develop- 
ment comparable  to  that  which  separates  the  grub  from 
the  moth. 

The  necessity  of  foreshortening  the  developmental 
phases  hi  the  individual  series  is  obvious.  Were  it  not 
for  this  foreshortening,  the  continuous  development  of 
the  species  would  be  impossible  and  the  development  of 
each  generation  would  end  where  that  of  its  predecessor 
ended. 

Through  the  foreshortening  of  its  developmental 
phases,  the  individual  is  put  into  possession  of  all  the 
advances  made  by  its  ancestors  while  still  in  the  morning 
of  life  and  while  its  youthful  plasticity  enables  it  to  move 
forward  into  new  developments  and  new  adjustments; 
each  generation  is  thus  enabled  to  add  its  modicum  to  the 


122  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

rich  inheritance  which  it  has  received  from  all  the  pre- 
ceding generations  of  the  species. 

In  the  case  of  man  and  mammals  the  support  given  by 
the  parent  during  the  early  days  of  development  of  the 
offspring  greatly  accelerate  the  process  of  foreshortening. 
In  fact,  the  developmental  series  in  its  entirety  is  contained 
within  the  brief  span  of  embryonic  life.  During  this 
period  the  parent  functions  for  the  offspring  and  the 
latter's  developmental  phases  are,  in  consequence,  reduced 
to  a  mere  shadowy  succession  of  morphological  stages  in 
nqne  of  which  the  individual  is  required  to  perform  any 
other  function  than  that  of  securing  the  transformation 
of  the  present  into  the  subsequent  stage. 

Notwithstanding  the  many-sided  help  afforded  the 
embryo  by  the  mother,  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  it  is  not  the  mother  but  the  force  resident  in  the 
embryo  itself  that  builds  each  successive  developmental 
phase  out  of  the  materials  contained  in  the  previous  stage 
together  with  the  food  supplied  by  the  mother.  The 
mother  provides  for  the  embryo  protection,  favor.able 
temperature,  oxygen  and  digested  food  materials  suitable 
to  the  needs  of  the  developing  organism.  The  develop- 
mental phases  through  which  the  embryo  passes  do  not 
constitute  a  functional  adjustment  of  the  embryo  to  an 
environment  such  as  that  which  surrounded  its  ancestors 
in  the  days  when  these  phases  were  first  acquired  by  the 
race.  It  is  this  truth  that  has  been  so  completely  mis- 
understood by  the  advocates  of  the  culture  epoch  theory, 
who  endeavor  to  draw  from  organic  development  support 
for  the  practice  of  making  the  child  pause  at  each  step  in 
his  mental  development  to  adjust  himself  to  a  human 
environment  that  has  long  since  ceased  to  exist. 

There  is  indeed  a  marked  likeness  between  mental 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  123 

development  and  the  organic  development  on  which  it 
rests :  there  may  be  observed  in  the  two  the  same  transi- 
tion from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  from  the  homo- 
geneous to  the  heterogeneous,  from  latency  to  epiphany; 
the  same  transition  from  the  implicit  to  the  explicit;  the 
same  differentiation  of  structure  and  specialization  of 
function;  the  same  recapitulation  of  race  history;  the  same 
foreshortening  of  the  phases  of  individual  development; 
and  the  same  causal  sequence  linking  the  successive  phases 
into  the  unity  of  individual  life.  Both  are  vital  processes 
and  both  are  governed  by  the  laws  of  life.  Nevertheless, 
the  process  of  organic  development  and  the  process  of 
mental  development  must  not  be  confounded. 

Physical  life,  no  matter  how  highly  it  may  be  developed, 
never  passes  over  into  mental  life.  The  most  rudimentary 
phase  of  conscious  life  is  utterly  beyond  the  bounds  of 
the  highest  phase  of  organic  life.  The  processes  of  mental 
life  are  analogous  not  homologous  to  the  processes  of 
organic  life  and  the  analogy  is  not  too  close.  The  ob- 
servable differences  between  the  two  processes  are  indeed 
as  remarkable  as  are  their  likenesses:  the  sequence  of 
phases  remains  rigid  throughout  the  entire  series  of 
organic  development,  whereas  hi  mental  life  there  is 
progressive  freedom  in  the  sequence  and  in  the  character 
of  the  series  as  we  pass  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest 
phases  of  individual  or  race  development.  In  the  lowest 
forms  of  conscious  life  and  in  the  first  stages  of  the  infant's 
life,  organic  conditions  practically  determine  the  response 
to  physical  stimuli,  whereas  in  the  highest  phases  of  adult 
human  consciousness  there  is  a  large  freedom  hi  the 
response  to  all  forms  of  stimuli.  As  human  consciousness 
develops,  it  requires  a  progressive  freedom  from  the  con- 
trol of  instinct  and  from  the  other  inherited  modes  of 


X 

124  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

action.  Again,  as  man  passes  upward  from  the  stage 
where  sensation  and  feeling  dominate  to  the  stage  where 
intellect  and  free  will  rule,  he  gains  in  power  of  self -adjust- 
ment to  changing  environmental  conditions.  Moreover, 
the  more  clearly  he  perceives  natural  law  and  fundamental 
truths  apart  from  their  concrete  embodiment  the  freer  he 
is  in  the  mode  of  his  response. 

Instead  of  acting  on  the  supposed  identity  of  the  proc- 
esses of  organic  and  mental  development,  education  is,  hi 
fact,  busied  in  large  measure  with  the  work  of  freeing  the 
individual  human  being  from  the  inherited  and  physically 
controlled  modes  of  activity.  Considerations  such  as 
these  help  to  bring  home  to  one  a  consciousness  of  the 
deep  sin  against  civilization  that  is  embodied  in  the 
culture  epoch  theory,  which,  instead  of  freeing  the 
child  from  inherited  and  rigid  modes  of  activity,  would 
fasten  upon  his  soul  bonds  which  would  link  him  insep- 
arably to  each  successive  phase  of  savage  ancestral  life. 

In  tracing  the  relationships  which  exist  between  organic 
and  mental  development  too  much  emphasis  can  scarcely 
be  given  to  the  freedpm  exhibited  in  the  character  and 
sequence  of  the  phases  of  mental  life  as  contrasted  with 
the  rigidity  of  the  series  in  organic  development.  It  is 
this  freedom  that  renders  education  both  possible  and 
necessary  and  it  is  in  the  light  of  this  freedom  and  the 
responsibilities  which  it  imposes  upon  the  teacher  that 
educational  ideals  and  educational  methods  must  be 
shaped. 

Human  consciousness  passes  from  the  instinctive  phase 
of  infancy  through  the  imitative  phase  of  childhood  and 
youth  to  freedom  and  self-determination  in  adult  life. 
This  sequence  is  never  reversed,  but  within  the  broad  out- 
lines thus  laid  down  there  is  a  large  progressive  freedom 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  125 

in  the  phases  of  development.  It  is  to  this  that  we  are 
chiefly  indebted  for  the  great  variety  of  types  observable 
in  adult  human  consciousness. 

The  comparison  between  the  phases  of  mental  develop- 
ment and  the  series  of  organic  developmental  phases  has 
furnished  the  inspiration  for  a  great  deal  of  our  present 
literature  on  the  fundamental  problems  of  education. 
The  subject  is  treated  extensively  by  Professor  Baldwin 
in  his  weighty  volume  on  mental  development  from  which 
we  quote  the  following: 

"The  individual  in  embryo  passes  through  stages  which 
represent  morphologically,  to  a  degree,  the  stages  actually 
found  in  the  ancestral  animal  series.  A  similar  analogy, 
when  inquired  into  on  the  side  of  consciousness,  seems  on 
the  surface  true,  since  we  find  more  and  more  developed 
stages  of  conscious  function  in  a  series  corresponding  hi 
the  main  with  the  stages  of  nejvous  growth  in  the  animals; 
and  then  we  find  this  growth  paralleled  in  its  great  fea- 
tures in  the  mental  development  of  the  human  infant. 

"The  race  series  seems  to  require,  both  on  organic 
grounds  and  from  evidence  regarding  consciousness,  a 
development  whose  major  terms  are  somewhat  in  this 
order,  i.  e.,  simple  contractility  with  the  organic  analogue 
of  pleasure  and  pain;  nervous  integration  corresponding 
to  special  sense  functions,  including  the  congeries  of  muscu- 
lar sensations,  and  some  adaptive  movements;  nervous 
integration  to  a  degree  to  which  corresponds  mental  pre- 
sentation of  objects  with  higher  motor  organization  and  re- 
flex attention ;  greater  coordination,  having  on  the  conscious 
side  memory,  conscious  imitation,  impulse,  instinct,  instinc- 
tive emotions;  finally,  cerebral  function  with  conscious 
thought,  voluntary  action,  and  ideal  emotion.  Without 
insisting  on  the  details  of  this  sketch — intended  at  this 


126  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

point  for  no  more  than  a  sketch — certain  great  epochs  of 
functional  differentiation  may  be  clearly  seen.  First, 
the  epoch  of  the  rudimentary  sense  processes,  the  pleasure 
and  pain  process,  and  simple  motor  adaptation,  called  for 
convenience  the  'affective  epoch':  second,  the  epoch  of 
presentation,  memory,  imitation,  defensive  action,  in- 
stinct, which  passes  by  gradations  into,  third,  the  epoch 
of  complex  presentation,  complex  motor  coordination,  of 
conquest,  of  offensive  action,  and  rudimentary  volition. 
These,  the  second  and  third  together,  I  should  characterize, 
on  the  side  of  consciousness,  as  the  'epoch  of  objective  ref- 
erence' :  and,  finally,  the  epoch  of  thought,  reflection,  self- 
assertion,  social  organization,  union  of  forces,  cooperation; 
the  'epochof  subjective  reference,'  which,in  human  history, 
merges  into  the  'social  and  ethical  epoch.' 

"In  the  animal  world  these  terms  form  a  series — evident 
enough  on  the  surface — its  terms  not  sharply  divided 
from  one  another,  not  in  most  instances  exclusive  before 
and  after;  but  representing  great  places  for  emphasis, 
stages  of  safe  acquirement,  and  outlooks  for  further 
growth.  So  we  find  the  invertebrates,  the  lower  verte- 
brates, the  higher  vertebrates  up  to,  or  somewhere  near, 
man,  and  man — four  stages. 

"The  analogy  of  this  series,  again,  with  that  of  the 
infant's  growth,  is,  in  the  main,  very  clear:  the  child 
begins  in  its  prenatal  and  early  postnatal  experience  with 
blank  sensations  and  pleasure  and  pain  with  the  motor 
adaptations  to  which  they  lead,  passes  into  a  stage  of 
apprehension  of  objects  with  response  to  them  by  'sug- 
gestion,' imitation,  etc.,  gets  to  be  more  or  less  self- 
controlled,  imaginative,  and  volitional,  and  ultimately 
becomes  reflective,  social  and  ethical."1 

1  Baldwin,  Mental  Development  in  the  Child  and  the  Race,  New 
York,  1895,  p.  15  ff. 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  127 

We  have  quoted  this  passage  at  length  from  Professor 
Baldwin,  as  it  sets  forth  in  detail  the  analogy  between  the 
processes  of  mental  and  physical  development  which  have 
been  so  much  misunderstood  and  so  much  abused  by 
educators  during  the  past  few  decades.  It  will  be  con- 
ceded that  resemblances  between  the  processes  of  organic 
and  mental  development  are  suggestive  and  that  they  are 
deserving  of  the  close  attention  of  all  students  of  education. 
They  have,  in  fact,  furnished  a  new  point  of  departure  for 
educational  theory.  It  is  well,  nevertheless,  not  to  lose 
sight  of  the  fact  that  there  is  another  side  to  the  question: 
the  differences  between  the  process  of  mental  devel- 
opment and  the  process  of  organic  development  are  as 
striking  and  as  instructive  as  are  then*  resemblances. 

The  major  part  of  the  organic  developmental  series  is, 
in  the  case  of  the  human  infant,  completed  before  birth, 
and  therefore  before  mental  development  begins.  It  is 
well  to  bear  this  fact  in  mind  lest  it  be  supposed  that  the 
phases  of  organic  development  are  actually  linked  with 
the  corresponding  phases  of  mental  development,  whereas, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  organic  developmental  series  is 
practically  completed  in  the  individual  before  his  mental 
life  begins.  Moreover,  the  phases  of  organic  development 
are  controlled  in  then*  sequence  and  in  their  nature  by 
causes  internal  to  the  organism;  whereas,  the  phases  of 
mental  development  are  controlled  to  a  very  large  extent, 
both  in  nature  and  hi  sequence,  by  environmental  agencies 
of  which  the  parent  and  the  teacher  are  the  most  conspic- 
uous elements.  The  former  of  these  processes  constitutes 
the  child's  physical  inheritance,  the  latter,  his  social 
inheritance. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  difference  between  the  pro- 
cess of  organic  development  as  it  occurs  in  animal  life 


128  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

and  in  human  life  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the 
organic  developmental  process  in  man  is  morphological, 
not  physiological.  The  actual  physiological  adjustments 
in  the  human  individual  are  controlled  to  a  very  large 
extent  by  the  play  of  non-instinctive  conscious  forces. 
This  thought  has  been  aptly  stated  by  President  Butler: 

"In  passing  from  the  highest  of  the  lower  animals  to 
man,  we  reach  a  most  important  stage  in  the  develop- 
ment of  infancy.  In  man  we  find  the  increasing  bulk, 
and  more  than  that,  the  increasing  complexity,  of  the 
brain  and  central  nervous  system  which  accompany  the 
complex  adjustments  and  actions  that  make  up  life. 
But  though  the  human  animal  is  born  into  the  world 
complete  as  to  certain  series  of  reflex  actions,  its  lungs 
able  to  breathe,  its  heart  to  beat,  its  blood  vessels  to 
contract,  its  glands  to  secrete,  an  immense  series  of 
adjustments  remains  to  be  made.  While  those  adjust- 
ments are  being  made,  there  is  a  more  or  less  prolonged 
period  of  helplessness  or  infancy. 

"The  meaning  of  that  period  of  helplessness  or  infancy 
lies  at  the  bottom  of  any  scientific  and  philosophical 
understanding  of  the  part  played  by  education  in 
human  life.  Infancy  is  a  period  of  plasticity;  it  is  a 
period  of  adjustment;  it  is  a  period  of  fitting  the  organism 
to  its  environment:  first,  physical  adjustment,  then 
adjustment  on  a  far  larger  and  broader  scale.  This 
fitting  of  the  organism  to  its  environment  on  the  larger 
and  broader  scale  is  the  field  of  education.  In  other 
words,  nature  and  heredity  have  so  organized  one  side  of 
animal  life  that  it  is  complete  at  the  time  of  birth.  A 
large  series  of  adjustments  to  the  world  around  us,  the 
series  of  adjustments  that  in  the  case  of  man  make  up  the 
life  that  is  really  worth  living,  constitutes  the  life  of  the 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  129 

mind  or  spirit.  At  birth,  those  adjustments  are  not  yet 
made  and  they  have  to  be  slowly  and  carefully  acquired. 
We  are  even  born  into  the  world  with  our  senses,  'the 
windows  of  the  soul/  locked,  uncoordinated,  unadjusted, 
unable  to  perform  what  is  eventually  to  be  their  function. 
It  is  a  familiar  fact  that  sight,  hearing,  and  touch  all  have 
to  be  developed  and  trained  and  coeducated,  taught  to  act 
together,  before  the  infant  can  appreciate  and  under- 
stand the  world  of  three  dimensions  hi  which  adults  live, 
and  which  they  have  supposed  to  be  the  only  world 
known  to  the  human  consciousness.  While  that  period 
of  plasticity  or  adjustment  lasts,  there  is  naturally  and 
necessarily  a  vast  influence  exerted,  not  only  on  the  child 
but  by  the  child."1 

Of  all  the  observable  differences  between  mental 
development  and  organic  development,  probably  the  most 
remarkable  as  well  as  the  most  significant  difference  lies 
in  this,  that  in  organic  development  all  the  way  up  through 
the  animal  series  to  man,  including  the  embryological 
period  of  human  development,  the  process  is  practically 
determined  in  its  entirety  by  forces  resident  in  the  organ- 
ism itself  which  thus  play  a  leading  r61e  in  physical 
heredity.  Over  against  this  it  is  to  be  noted  that  in 
mental  development  the  control  of  each  phase,  as  well  as 
the  control  of  the  developmental  series  as  a  whole,  comes 
in  large  measure  from  without.  It  is  the  chief  factor  in 
the  child's  social  inheritance. 

The  child  through  imitation  takes  over  to  himself  modes 
of  activity  which  are  exhibited  by  persons  in  his  environ- 
ment. His  development  is  governed  in  no  small  measure 
by  his  individual  experience  and  by  the  statements  of 
others  which  he  accepts  at  first  without  criticism.  Finally, 

1  Butler,  Meaning  of  Education,  New  York,  1915,  p.  17  ff. 


130  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  higher  stages  of  his  development  are  governed  by  his 
intellect  and  free  will  acting  in  the  light  of  the  experience 
of  the  race  and  not  of  his  ancestors  only. 

Attention  has  been  called  in  this  and  the  preceding 
chapters  to  the  manifold  differences  which  exist  between 
the  processes  of  growth  and  of  development.  It  seems 
well,  however,  before  concluding  this  chapter,  to  call 
attention  to  the  following  very  significant  relationship 
which  exists  between  the  two  processes  as  they  occur  in 
the  living  organism  and  in  the  conscious  life  of  man. 
While,  for  the  most  part,  growth,  both  physical  and  mental, 
is  accompanied  by  development,  nevertheless,  the  pro- 
cesses are  entirely  distinct  and  are  frequently  separable. 
The  growth  of  the  body  continues  long  after  its  develop- 
ment has  practically  ceased  and  the  same  may  be  said  of 
the  mind.  Again,  at  the  time  during  which  both  of  the  pro- 
cesses are  occurring  simultaneously  they  proceed  in  inverse 
ratios.  When  development  is  at  its  maximum,  growth  is 
at  its  minimum  and,  conversely,  while  growth  is  at  its 
maximum,  development  is  at  its  minimum.  Probably 
99  per  cent  of  the  development  of  the  human  embryo 
takes  place  before  it  reaches  the  growth  of  more  than  a 
few  ounces.  This  is  true  of  the  ontogenetic  development 
of  all  of  the  mammals  and  of  the  higher  animals  in  general. 

During  the  early  developmental  stages  of  the  physical 
organism,  growth  impedes  development  and  nature 
strives  as  far  as  possible  to  check  it  and  hold  it  in  abeyance 
so  that  normal  development  may  run  its  course.  During 
this  period  the  only  value  of  growth  is  to  be  found  in  the 
way  in  which  it  contributes  to  development.  As  the 
developmental  process  nears  completion,  rapid  growth 
sets  in.  This  is  rendered  necessary  to  the  end  that  the 
organs  in  their  final  stage  of  development  may  attain  the 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  131 

size  and  strength  necessary  to  perform  the  functions  of 
adult  life  adequately. 

It  is  necessary  that  the  teacher  should  bear  this  truth 
in  mind  for,  while  he  has  it  in  his  power  to  promote  both 
the  growth  and  the  development  of  the  mental  life  of  the 
pupil,  the  best  interest  of  the  pupil  demands  that  mental 
development  should,  as  far  as  possible,  precede  mental 
growth.  Arrested  mental  development  may  easily  result 
from  excessive  and  untimely  mental  growth.  This  is 
particularly  true  in  the  early  stages  of  the  educative 
process. 

The  aim,  consequently,  in  primary  education,  and  indeed 
throughout  most  of  the  period  devoted  to  elementary 
education,  is  that  the  pupil's  growth  in  knowledge  should 
not  be  advanced  beyond  the  point  where  such  growth  is 
necessary  or  helpful  to  mental  development. 

The  period  at  which  the  emphasis  should  change  from 
mental  development  to  mental  growth  depends  upon  the 
extent  of  the  education  which  the  pupil  is  to  receive. 
When  it  is  probable  that  he  will  leave  school  upon  the 
completion  of  the  eighth  grade,  the  period  at  which  promo- 
tion of  mental  growth  should  normally  take  place  must  be 
advanced  so  that  he  may  be  prepared  immediately  to  take 
up  the  duties  of  adult  life.  The  best  interest  of  the  pupil 
who  is  to  continue  in  school  through  high  school  and  col- 
lege demands  that  every  effort  be  made  to  carry  his 
mental  development  -to  the  highest  possible  point  before 
checking  it  by  growth  in  knowledge.  A  practical  recog- 
nition of  this  truth  would  profoundly  modify  the  curric- 
ulum, the  text-books  and  the  methods  now  employed  in 
many  of  our  schools. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

MAN'S  RECOGNITION  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW 

Primitive  peoples  lived  in  a  world  of  chaos;  they  were 
unable  to  grasp  the  unity  of  nature  or  to  recognize  the 
unity  of  intellect  and  will  that  lie  back  of  all  natural 
phenomena.  Wherever  they  saw  regularity  or  felt  pur- 
poseful change,  they  attributed  the  cause  to  a  local 
deity  made  after  their  own  image  and  likeness.  It 
was  natural,  therefore,  that  they  should  worship  the 
heavenly  bodies  and  that  they  should  have  gods  of  the 
winds  and  waves,  gods  of  the  regularly  recurring  seasons, 
gods  of  the  forests  and  the  streams. 

As  man's  intellect  developed,  his  gods  decreased  in 
number  and  assumed  then*  places  in  a  celestial  hierarchy 
such  as  we  find  described  in  the  mythologies  of  Greece  and 
Rome.  The  phenomena  of  heat  and  cold,  of  light  and 
darkness,  of  pleasure  and  pain,  of  love  and  hate,  of  good 
and  evil,  quite  naturally  led  man  into  some  form  of  dualism. 
In  the  sublime  doctrine  of  Monotheism,  held  by  the 
Chaldeans  and  the  Chosen  People,  we  find  the  first  clear 
recognition  of  unity  in  the  power  that  governs  the  uni- 
verse. But  man  recognized  God  as  the  Creator  and  Ruler 
of  the  universe  long  centuries  before  he  discovered  that 
there  is  a  unity  resident  in  nature  or  that  natural  law  is 
intrinsic. 

It  is  not  easy  to  determine  the  exact  underlying  causes 
that  led  various  peoples  toward  the  doctrine  of  Mono- 
theism. How  much  of  this  progress  is  due  to  scattered 
fragments  of  primitive  revelation?  Much  of  it  may  be 
undoubtedly  traced  to  the  psychological  characteristics 

182 


MAN'S  RECOGNITION  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW  133 

of  various  peoples.  Thus  Dr.  Allan  Menzies,1  speaking 
of  the  religion  of  India,  says:  "The  Indian  gods  were  too 
little  defined,  too  little  personal,  too  much  alike,  to  main- 
tain their  separate  personalities  with  great  tenacity ;  nor  did 
they  lend  themselves  to  a  monarchical  form  of  pantheon; 
no  one  of  them  was  sufficiently  marked  out  from  the  rest 
or  above  the  rest,  to  rule  permanently  over  them.  Yet 
the  sense  of  unity  in  Indian  religion  is  very  strong; 
from  the  first  the  Indian  mind  is  seeking  a  way  to  adjust 
the  claims  of  the  various  gods,  and  view  them  all  as  one. 
An  early  idea  which  makes  in  this  direction  is  that  of 
Rita,  the  order,  not  specially  connected  with  any  one 
god,  which  rules  both  in  the  physical  and  the  moral 
world,  and  with  which  all  beings  have  to  reckon."  There 
is  here  a  definite  groping  towards  unity  and  it  would  also 
seem  that  the  unity  in  question  is  objective;  that  it  is 
nothing  else  than  the  sum  total  of  natural  law  La  the 
physical  and  moral  worlds.  It  is  not  perceived  as  eman- 
ating from  the  deity  but  as  imposing  limits  to  the  powers 
of  the  various  gods.  Elsewhere,  however,  the  growing 
recognition  of  order  in  the  world  carried  with  it,  for  the 
most  part,  a  recognition  of  the  unity  and  personality  of 
the  First  Cause. 

In  the  development  of  human  thought,  as  in  the  develop- 
ment of  all  else  in  nature,  the  movement  is  from  the 
general  to  the  particular,  from  the  simple  to  the  complex, 
from  the  large  movement  to  the  details  which  it  carries. 
Perspective  is  necessary  for  the  perception  of  large 
outlines  and  for  the  recognition  of  fundamental  truths; 
and  so  man  saw  order  and  regularity  in  the  movements 
of  the  heavenly  bodies  long  before  he  saw  the  same  order 
and  regularity  beneath  the  details  of  the  complex  phenom- 

1  History  of  Religion,  New  York,  1897,  p.  334  ff. 


134  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

ena  that  surrounded  him.  He  recognized  law  in  the 
regularly  recurring  tides  without  suspecting  that  the 
same  rigid  law  governed  the  movements  of  the  storm- 
tossed  billows.  Newton  sent  a  thrill  of  exultation 
through  the  world,  not  by  discovering  the  force  of  gravity, 
but  by  discovering  that  the  apple  in  its  fall  obeys  the  same 
law  that  holds  the  planet  in  its  orbit. 

Copernicus  banished  from  the  heavens  the  crystalline 
spheres  of  the  Ptolemaic  System  and  the  endless  complex- 
ity of  cycle  and  epicycle  and  laid  the  foundation  of  modern 
science  by  framing  a  theory  to  fit  observed  facts  instead 
of  endeavoring  to  bend  observed  facts  into  conformity 
with  existing  theory.  Galileo,  Kepler  and  Tycho  Brahe 
developed  the  heliocentric  hypothesis  of  Copernicus  and 
formulated  the  laws  that  govern  the  movements  of  the 
members  of  the  Solar  System.  That  these  astronomers, 
however,  recognized  the  intelligence  displayed  in  the 
planetary  movements  without  having  traced  them  to  their 
immediate  underlying  cause,  is  illustrated  by  the  fact 
that  Kepler  assigned  an  angel  to  each  planet  to  guide  it 
in  its  course.  With  Newton's  discovery  of  the  univer- 
sality of  gravity,  all  bodies  hi  the  universe  were  seen  to 
move  in  obedience  to  one  universal  law.  As  a  consequence 
of  this  new  development  of  science,  astrology  gave  place 
to  astronomy,  alchemy  made  way  for  chemistry,  and  man 
at  last  recognized  the  reign  of  law  throughout  the  realm 
of  inanimate  nature. 

But  this  movement  of  thought  did  not  end  here.  From 
the  universality  of  the  laws  of  nature  to  their  intrinsic 
character  the  transition  was  easily  and  readily  made. 
Thus,  once  the  nature  of  light  is  understood,  the  law  of 
its  distribution  is  seen  to  follow  as  a  necessary  consequence. 
Since  light  radiating  from  a  luminous  point  moves  in 


MAN'S  RECOGNITION  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW          135 

straight  lines,  the  quantity  of  light  falling  on  equal 
surfaces  must  be  inversely  as  the  squares  of  the  distances 
of  these  surfaces  from  the  source  of  light.  In  like  manner, 
that  all  bodies  move  as  if  attracted  by  one  another 
directly  as  their  masses,  and  inversely  as  the  squares  of 
their  distances,  is  seen  to  be  more  than  an  empirical 
formula.  The  law  governing  these  movements  is  internal, 
not  external;  it  is  an  expression  of  intellect,  not  of  will; 
it  is  included  in  the  essence  of  bodies  and  is  indifferent  to 
their  existence.  Upon  the  recognition  of  the  intrinsic 
character  of  the  laws  governing  its  phenomena,  inanimate 
nature  became  a  province  of  applied  mathematics. 

The  recognition  by  men  of  science  of  the  intrinsic  char- 
acter of  the  fundamental  laws  of  nature,  soon  led  to  very 
serious  consequences.  Men  who  occupied  themselves 
with  the  study  of  natural  phenomena,  while  neglecting  to 
study  Christian  philosophy,  were  often  led  to  deny  the 
Dominion  of  God  over  nature  and  they  sometimes  lost 
sight  of  the  very  existence  of  the  Creator.  On  the  other 
hand,  those  Christian  philosophers  who  neglected  the  study 
of  nature,  not  infrequently  felt  themselves  called  upon  to 
deny  the  inviolability  of  natural  law  in  order  to  vindicate 
God's  Supreme  Dominion  over  nature.  The  misunder- 
standing which  thus  grew  up  between  the  representa- 
tives of  Christian  philosophy  and  the  men  of  science  is 
responsible  for  much  of  the  atheism  and  agnosticism 
that  has  prevailed  among  men  of  science  during  the  past 
two  centuries,  and  it  is  at  least  partly  responsible  for  the 
neglect  of  the  natural  sciences  and  the  hostile  attitude 
towards  them  which  is  sometimes  to  be  found,  even  to  the 
present  day,  among  men  of  deep  religious  convictions  and 
meager  scientific  attainments. 

It  is  not  surprising,  indeed,  that  the  Dominion  of  God 


136  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

should  be  a  more  potent  factor  in  the  world  than  the 
findings  of  science  to  the  faithful  believer  who  knows  how 
the  winds  and  the  waves  obeyed  the  voice  of  Jesus  and 
how  disease  and  death  were  subject  to  His  rule.  But 
there  is  no  conflict  between  the  laws  of  God  and  the  laws 
of  nature.  In  every  chapter  of  the  warfare  between 
science  and  religion  the  conflict  may  be  traced  to  an  abuse 
of  authority.  A  man's  authority  can  never  be  legiti- 
mately transferred  from  one  field  of  science  to  another. 
The  ablest  jurist  does  not,  through  his  knowledge  of  the 
law,  acquire  authority  in  the  field  of  medicine,  and  the 
most  eminent  physician  may  be  the  merest  tyro  in  the 
field  of  theology.  In  like  manner,  the  most  profound 
theologians  may  be  totally  devoid  of  ability  in  the 
interpretation  of  the  laws  governing  the  phenomena  of 
nature. 

Owing  to  the  limitations  placed  upon  human  intelli- 
gence, it  is  not  surprising  that  a  man  may  attain  cer- 
tainty in  his  chosen  field  of  research  without  being  in 
the  least  able  to  reconcile  his  findings  with  equally  certain 
findings  in  unrelated  fields  of  truth.  Indeed  one  may  often 
find  truths  in  the  same  department  of  science  that  the 
human  mind  is  utterly  unable  to  reconcile.  Thus  the 
concept  of  a  straight  line  and  that  of  a  circle  are  so  con- 
tradictory to  each  other  that  it  is  not  possible  to  hold 
them  both  in  the  mind  as  identical,  nevertheless  we 
accept  without  question  the  statement  that  a  straight 
line  is  a  circle  with  an  infinite  radius.  In  like  manner, 
the  Christian  believes  the  statement  that  there  are  three 
persons  in  God  and  the  other  statement,  which  he  cannot 
reconcile  with  it,  that  there  is  one  nature  in  God.  His 
failure  to  be  able  to  unite  these  two  statements  mentally 
does  not,  however,  prevent  him  from  believing  both 


MAN  S  RECOGNITION  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW          137 

statements  and  he  looks  forward  to  the  time  in  the  life  to 
come  when  in  the  Beatific  Vision  he  may  comprehend 
those  truths  that  remain  a  mystery  to  him  while  he 
dwells  in  the  flesh. 

According  to  Christian  philosophy,  the  Being  of  God  is 
the  primary  source  of  all  truth  and  of  all  existence.  It  is 
this  same  truth  held  in  the  mind  of  God  that  constitutes 
the  Second  Person  of  the  Blessed  Trinity  through  Whom 
all  things  were  made  and  without  Whom  was  made 
nothing  that  was  made.  This  same  truth,  in  so  far  as  it 
has  been  externalized  by  the  will  of  God  in  the  creative 
act,  is  the  essence  of  all  created  things.  Again,  it  is  this 
same  truth  that  man  incorporates  into  his  own  mind  when 
he  comprehends  the  laws  of  nature,  and  that  he  in  turn 
bodies  forth  in  the  creations  of  art.  God  is  truth;  and 
this  Truth  is  eternal  and  unchangeable,  whether  it  be 
in  the  Being  of  God,  in  the  Divine  Intelligence,  or  whether 
it  be  reflected  in  the  essence  of  created  things,  in  the 
mind  of  man,  or  in  the  creations  of  art.  It  is  the  mode  of 
being  or  existence  in  the  created  world  that  is  contingent 
upon  the  will  of  God.  Whether  the  world  exists  or  ceases 
to  exist  depends  wholly  upon  the  will  of  the  Creator. 
St.  Augustine  writing  on  this  subject  says:  Conservatio 
est  creatio  continuata,  the  conservation  of  the  world  is 
the  creative  act  continued.  This  is  only  another  way  of 
expressing  St.  Paul's  thought  "In  God  we  live,  move  and 
have  our  being." 

The  laws  of  nature  are  the  expression  of  God's  intellect 
in  the  world;  the  forces  of  nature  are  the  expression  of 
God's  will  in  the  world.  It  is  surely  not  denying  to  God  a 
perfection  to  say  of  Him  that  he  cannot  sin;  that  He 
cannot  act  untruthfully;  that  His  will  in  its  activity 
cannot  be  divorced  from  His  intellect. 


138  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

The  Christian  does  not  believe  that  creation  expresses 
the  sum  total  of  God's  power  or  the  sum  total  of  His 
activity  in  the  world.  The  doctrine  of  the  Concursus 
Divinus  demands  an  added  impulse  from  the  will  of 
God  to  move  each  passive  faculty  into  activity.  But 
this  impulse,  even  as  the  creative  impulse  itself,  is  linked 
with  intelligence  and  moves  in  the  order  of  truth. 

To  the  Christian  philosopher,  the  miracle  is  not  the  only 
evidence  of  God's  Dominion  over  nature.  The  regular 
order  of  nature  is  to  him  a  constant  witness  of  an  over- 
ruling Providence  of  which  the  miracle  is  but  a  special 
instance.  St.  Augustine,  commenting  on  the  miracle  of 
the  Loaves  and  Fishes,  says:  "Majlis  enim  miraculum  est 
gubernatio  totius  mundi,  quam  saturatio  quinquin  milium 
hominum  de  quinque  panibus,"  to  govern  the  whole  world 
is  a  greater  miracle  than  to  satisfy  the  hunger  of  5,000 
men  with  five  loaves.  And  he  continues:  "No  one 
wonders  at  the  former  miracle,  men  wonder  at  the  latter, 
not  because  it  is  great  but  because  it  is  rare."  And  he 
calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  same  Power  which 
multiplied  the  loaves  and  fishes  multiplies  each  year  a 
few  seeds  into  an  abundant  harvest. 

It  is  not  easy  to  account  for  the  attitude  of  men  of 
science  who  adduce  the  inviolability  of  natural  law  as  an 
argument  against  an  over-ruling  Providence.  The  declar- 
ation in  Newton's  Principia:  "  Natura  obediendo  vincitur," 
by  obeying  nature  we  conquer  her — should  have  led  them 
into  an  understanding  of  the  other  truth  that  dominion 
over  nature's  processes  is  exercised  through  a  knowledge  of 
her  laws.  Every  advance  in  natural  science  has  added  to 
man's  dominion  over  nature.  The  ocean  liner,  the 
telephone,  electric  light,  wireless  telegraphy  and  telephony 
and  the  thousand  applications  of  modern  science  demon- 


MAN'S  RECOGNITION  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW          139 

strate  nature's  obedience  to  those  who  understand  her 
laws.  But  an  understanding  of  the  forces  of  nature  does 
not  imply  the  power  to  alter  or  to  suspend  the  elemental 
laws  which  express  the  modes  of  their  activity.  Man's 
dominion  over  nature  is  limited  to  the  control  of  those 
processes  which  result  from  the  play  of  combined  forces. 
Through  a  knowledge  of  the  primary  laws  of  nature,  man 
is  enabled  to  regulate,  within  certain  limits,  the  combina- 
tion of  forces  and  thus  to  govern  resulting  processes. 
Now,  if  the  few  glimpses  of  natural  truth  which  constitute 
modern  science  have  led  man  into  so  vast  a  dominion 
over  nature,  what  must  be  the  dominion  of  Him  Who 
created  the  world  and  Whose  thought  is  the  substance  of 
nature's  laws. 

The  history  of  the  long  continued  battles  that  were 
fought  on  the  frontiers  of  life  before  man  recognized  unity 
and  the  reign  of  law  in  the  inanimate  -world  is  second  in 
interest  only  to  the  chapters  on  the  warfare  of  science 
and  religion.  The  belief  in  spontaneous  generation,  so  long 
prevalent,  obscured  the  lines  of  demarcation  between  the 
vegetable  and  the  mineral  kingdoms.  From  the  earliest 
times  down  to  the  discovery  of  the  microscope  in  the 
beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  men  believed  that 
under  planetary  influence  mice  were  bred  from  the  mud 
of  the  Nile  and  that  barnacles  were  changed  into  geese. 

The  microscope,  which  forever  dispelled  these  myths  as 
far  as  the  grosser  forms  of  life  were  concerned,  at  the 
same  time  brought  into  view  the  teeming  world  of  micro- 
scopic life;  and,  while  men  accepted  for  all  the  higher 
forms  of  life,  Harvey's  dictum  "Omne  vivum  ex  ovot"  many 
still  clung  to  the  ancient  belief  hi  spontaneous  generation 
among  all  the  minute  forms  of  life.  In  spite  of  the  brilliant 
researches  of  the  Abbe*  Lazaro  Spallanzani  of  Pavia,  in 


140  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  closing  decades  of  the  eighteenth  century,  spontaneous 
generation  continued  to  hold  its  own  until  Louis  Pasteur 
removed  the  last  vestiges  of  the  supposed  objective 
evidence  for  this  theory  and  laid  the  foundations  of 
aseptic  and  antiseptic  surgery  and  preventive  medicine 
in  the  germ  theory  of  disease.  But  even  after  all  the  facts 
in  the  case  were  seen  to  harmonize  with  the  laws  of 
biogenesis  and  homogenesis,  even  after  these  laws  were 
seen  to  be  coextensive  with  life,  the  materialist  and  the 
monist  refused  to  recognize  the  intrinsic  character  of 
these  laws  and  they  continued  to  believe  that  at  some  time 
in  the  past,  under  conditions  that  are  still  unknown  to  us, 
the  forces  of  the  inanimate  world  did  actually  produce 
living  beings.  Science,  however,  is  not  concerned  with 
beliefs,  whether  they  be  of  scientists  or  of  others,  and  in  so 
far  as  the  science  of  biology  has  accumulated  evidence 
bearing  on  the  question  of  biogenesis  or  spontaneous 
generation,  whether  in  the  present  or  in  the  past,  there  is 
but  one  verdict:  the  evidence  is  all  in  favor  of  biogenesis. 
It  gives  not  the  slightest  shadow  of  encouragement  to  the 
monist. 

Men  who  believe  that  in  physics  or  hi  chemistry  there 
may  be  found  an  argument  against  the  supreme  Dominion 
of  God,  not  infrequently  find  it  difficult  to  recognize  any 
other  forces  in  the  world  of  life  than  those  contained  in 
inorganic  nature.  On  the  other  hand,  the  men  who 
devoted  themselves  exclusively  to  zoology,  botany  and 
natural  history  hi  the  past  frequently  failed  to  recognize 
the  fact  that  the  laws  of  physics  and  chemistry  are  obeyed 
throughout  the  world  of  fife.  They  regarded  organic 
chemistry  as  a  science  apart;  they  believed  that  life  built 
all  her  wonderful  structures  in  defiance  of  the  laws  of 
inorganic  chemistry.  This  attitude  of  mind,  however,  has 


MAN'S  RECOGNITION  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW          141 

been  completely  changed.  The  progress  of  biological 
science  during  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century 
revealed  to  all  students  of  nature  the  fact  that  the  laws  of 
physics  and  chemistry  are  coextensive  with  matter  and  that 
life,  whatever  be  its  intrinsic  character,  expresses  itself  in 
this  world  only  through  matter  and  in  obedience  to  the 
laws  of  the  material  universe. 

The  rapid  development  of  psychological  science  during 
the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  due  to  an 
attempt  to  trace  the  manifold  relationships  that  exist 
between  conscious  and  unconscious  vital  phenomena. 
Along  the  frontiers  of  the  conscious  world  were  fought  over 
again  many  of  the  battles  that  in  the  preceding  quarter  of 
a  century  had  been  fought  out  on  the  frontiers  of  life. 
As  a  result  of  the  great  volume  of  research  work  that 
has  been  carried  on  in  this  field,  the  realm  of  conscious 
life  is  seen  to  be  set  off  by  a  sharply  denned  line  from  the 
vegetable  and  mineral  kingdoms  and  to  be  divided  by 
just  as  real,  though  a  somewhat  less  obvious,  line  of 
demarcation,  into  the  region  of  sentient  life  and  the  region 
of  intellectual  life.  The  meaning  of  the  simplest  conscious 
state  is  not  to  be  found  even  in  the  most  complete  knowl- 
edge of  matter  and  motion,  nor  is  it  included  in  the  most 
exhaustive  knowledge  of  the  underlying  and  concomitant 
physiological  phenomena.  The  science  of  neurology  still 
remains  the  science  of  neurology  and  no  amount  of  en- 
deavor on  the  part  of  the  behaviorist  has  been  able  to 
bridge  the  chasm  between  it  and  psychology,  nor  have 
the  most  painstaking  researches  been  able  to  alter  the 
fact  that  the  operations  of  intellect  and  will  still  lie 
beyond  and  above  the  realm  of  sensation  and  feeling. 

Were  some  new  discovery  to  enable  us  tomorrow  to 
bridge  the  chasm  between  life  and  non-life,  between  phys- 


142  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

iology  and  psychology,  between  the  world  of  sense  and 
the  world  of  intellect,  and  thus  reverse  the  whole  trend 
of  scientific  progress,  it  would  not  in  the  least  affect  the 
Christian's  belief  in  God  or  change  the  data  on  which 
Christian  philosophers  have  ever  based  their  belief  in  a 
Creator.  But  as  the  case  stands,  scientific  research  in 
these  various  fields  has  ever  tended  more  and  more  to 
demonstrate  the  existence  of  impassable  chasms  between 
these  various  classes  of  natural  phenomena  and  incidentally 
they  furnish  a  strong  argument  in  favor  of  creation,  since 
there  is  no  other  conceivable  way  at  present  to  account 
for  the  beginnings  of  life  on  this  planet,  at  a  time  when 
the  conditions  had  become  such  as  to  permit  of  the  exist- 
ence of  living  protoplasm  and  of  the  appearance  on  the 
earth  of  sentiency  and  intelligence  at  still  later  periods  of 
time.  It  is  not  science,  therefore,  but  deep-rooted  ante- 
cedent prejudice  that  leads  men  to  ignore  the  breaks  in 
the  natural  series  and  to  refuse  to  accept  any  unjointed 
links  in  nature.  Men  may  still  continue  to  believe  in 
monism,  but  they  cannot  draw  support  for  such  belief 
from  modern  science. 

Thomas  Huxley,  who  will  not  be  known  to  posterity 
as  a  friend  of  theologians,  thus  points  out  the  absurdity 
of  the  attempt  to  bridge  over  the  least  conspicuous  of 
these  chasms:  "Nobody,  I  imagine,  will  credit  me  with 
the  desire  to  limit  the  empire  of  physical  science,  but  I 
really  feel  bound  to  confess  that  a  great  many  very  familiar 
and,  at  the  same  time,  extremely  important  phenomena 
lie  quite  beyond  its  legitimate  limits.  I  cannot  conceive, 
for  example,  how  the  phenomena  of  consciousness,  as  such 
and  apart  from  the  physical  process  by  which  they  are 
called  into  existence,  are  to  be  brought  within  the  bounds 
of  physical  science.  Take  the  simplest  possible  example. 


MAN'S  RECOGNITION  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW          143 

the  feeling  of  redness.  Physical  science  tells  us  that  it 
commonly  arises  as  a  consequence  of  molecular  changes 
propagated  from  the  eye  to  a  certain  part  of  the  substance 
of  the  brain,  when  vibrations  of  the  luminiferous  ether  of  a 
certain  character  fall  upon  the  retina.  Let  us  suppose 
the  process  of  physical  analysis  pushed  so  far  that  one 
could  view  the  last  link  of  this  chain  of  molecules,  watch 
their  movements  as  if  they  were  billiard  balls,  weigh  them, 
measure  them,  and  know  all  that  is  physically  knowable 
about  them.  Well,  even  in  that  case,  we  should  be  just 
as  far  from  being  able  to  include  the  resulting  phenomena 
of  consciousness,  the  feeling  of  redness,  within  the  bounds 
of  physical  science,  as  we  are  at  present.  It  would  remain 
as  unlike  the  phenomena  we  know  under  the  names  of 
matter  and  motion  as  it  is  now.  .  .  . 

"I  do  not  suppose  that  I  am  exceptionally  endowed 
because  I  have  all  my  life  enjoyed  a  keen  perception  of  the 
beauty  offered  us  by  nature  and  by  art.  Now  physical 
science  may  and  probably  will,  some  day,  enable  our 
posterity  to  set  forth  the  exact  physical  concomitants  and 
conditions  of  the  strange  rapture  of  beauty.  But  if  ever 
that  day  arrives,  the  rapture  will  remain,  just  as  it  is  now, 
outside  and  beyond  the  physical  world;  and,  even  in  the 
mental  world,  something  superadded  to  mere  sensation. 
I  do  not  wish  to  crow  unduly  over  my  humble  cousin  the 
orang,  but  in  the  aesthetic  province,  as  in  that  of  the 
intellect,  I  am  afraid  he  is  nowhere.  I  doubt  not  he 
would  detect  a  fruit  amidst  a  wilderness  of  leaves  where  I 
could  see  nothing;  but  I  am  tolerably  confident  that  he 
has  never  been  awe  struck,  as  I  have  been,  by  the  dim 
religious  gloom,  as  of  a  temple  devoted  to  the  earthgods, 
of  the  tropical  forests  which  he  inhabits.  Yet  I  doubt 
not  that  our  poor  long-armed  and  short-legged  friend,  as 


144  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

he  sits  meditatively  munching  his  durian  fruit,  has  some- 
thing behind  that  sad  Socratic  face  of  his  which  is  utterly 
'beyond  the  bounds  of  physical  science.'  Physical 
science  may  know  all  about  his  clutching  the  fruit  and 
munching  it  and  digesting  it,  and  how  the  physical 
titillation  of  his  palate  is  transmitted  to  some  microscopic 
cells  of  the  gray  matter  of  his  brain.  But  the  feelings  of 
sweetness  and  of  satisfaction,  which,  for  a  moment,  hang 
out  their  signal  lights  in  his  melancholy  eyes,  are  as 
utterly  outside  the  bounds  of  physics  as  is  the  'fine  frenzy' 
of  a  human  rhapsodist."1 

The  clear  recognition  of  the  line  which  separates 
consciousness  from  the  realm  of  unconscious  life  only 
brings  out  in  stronger  light  the  fundamental  unity  of  all 
nature,  for  hi  spite  of  this  line  of  demarcation,  conscious- 
ness in  all  its  phases  expresses  itself  in  this  world  only 
through  material  and  vital  phenomena,  and  in  obedience 
to  the  laws  of  these  lower  realms  of  nature.  In  conse- 
quence of  this,  conscious  phenomena  are  extremely 
complex  and  difficult  of  analysis,  and  it  is  not  surprising 
that  they  constitute  the  last  realm  of  nature  in  which 
man  has  been  brought  to  recognize  the  reign  of  law. 

Plant  life  is  governed  by  laws  peculiar  to  itself,  but  these 
laws  operate  in  harmony  with  the  laws  of  the  mineral 
kingdom.  So,  too,  sentient  life  is  governed  by  its  own 
peculiar  laws  which  operate  in  harmony  with  the  laws 
of  the  vegetable  and  mineral  kingdoms ;  and,  in  fike  manner, 
the  human  intellect  and  will,  in  all  their  processes,  function 
under  laws  which  find  no  application  beyond  their  own 
domain.  Nevertheless,  intellect  and  will  must  operate 
in  conformity  with  the  laws  which  govern  the  lower  realms 
of  nature. 


1  Huxley.  Evolution  and  Ethics,  New  York,  1894,  p.  122  ff. 


MAN'S  RECOGNITION  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  LAW          145 

Without  in  the  least  confusing  these  various  truths  or 
natural  phenomena,  man  has  come  at  last  to  recognize  the 
fact  that  all  the  processes  of  nature,  from  the  swaying 
of  the  planet  and  the  flowing  of  the  tide  to  the  highest 
movements  of  thought  and  emotion,  are  under  the  control 
of  laws  which  are  objective  and  intrinsic.  And  he  has 
learned  further  that  his  dominion  over  these  phenomena 
is  and  must  always  remain  in  direct  proportion  to  his 
knowledge  of  the  natural  laws  which  express  the  mode  of 
activity  of  the  forces  lying  back  of  the  phenomena. 

The  recognition  of  the  reign  of  law  has  brought  into 
existence  in  our  own  day  a  large  and  varied  group  of 
sciences  and  it  has  profoundly  modified  many  of  the  older 
sciences.  But  nowhere  does  the  recognition  of  the 
reign  of  law  demand  so  complete  a  change  of  attitude 
as  in  the  school.  Every  subject  taught  must  be  presented 
in  a  new  way  and  be  clothed  with  a  new  interest.  In  fact, 
the  very  meaning  of  the  term  education  has  undergone  a 
profound  change.  The  teacher  has  ceased  to  be  a  mere 
purveyor  of  facts;  his  function  is  to  minister  to  the  growing 
mind,  to  guide  the  complex  processes  of  development  that 
are  taking  place  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  his  pupils. 
He  has  come  to  realize  that  the  process  of  education  as 
it  takes  place  in  the  mind  of  the  pupil  is  a  vital  process 
which  is  governed  in  all  its  phases  by  the  laws  of  life  and 
mind.  The  recognition  of  the  reign  of  law  in  the  realm 
of  mental  life  has  brought  home  to  the  educator  the 
realization  that  his  power  over  the  processes  of  develop- 
ment in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  his  pupils  must  always 
remain  in  direct  proportion  to  his  knowledge  of  the  laws 
of  life  and  mind  that  govern  these  processes. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  FUNCTION  OF  EXPERIENCE 

The  recognition  of  the  reign  of  law  in  the  realm  of 
mental  life  demands  not  only  that  the  teacher  be  familiar 
with  the  fundamental  laws  governing  the  mind  in  its 
growth  and  development,  but  it  calls  for  many  profound 
changes  in  educational  aims  and  in  educational  methods. 

It  has  always  been  the  aim  of  education  to  secure  the 
adjustment  of  the  pupil  to  the  environment  into  which 
he  must  enter  on  leaving  school.  In  the  past,  however, 
the  aim  of  education  was  to  adjust  the  individual  to  the 
concrete  facts  of  his  environment,  whereas  a  recognition 
of  the  reign  of  law  in  the  realm  of  life  makes  it  necessary 
to  adjust  the  pupil,  not  to  the  facts,  but  to  the  laws  govern- 
ing the  facts  of  the  environment.  The  older  aim  of 
education  sought  to  build  upon  the  native  plasticity  of  the 
infant  a  set  of  rigid  habits  calculated  to  secure  serviceable 
adjustments  to  relatively  static  social  and  economic  con- 
ditions. The  present  aim  must  be  to  build  up  basic  habits 
which  will  permit  of  constant  and  facile  modifications  to  meet 
rapidly  changing  conditions  in  the  adult  human  environ- 
ment. The  older  aim  throughout  the  entire  educative 
process  was  chiefly  to  secure  mental  growth.  At  present 
the  aim  in  the  early  part  of  the  educative  process  is 
chiefly  the  securing  of  mental  development. 

A  rational  system  of  education  in  our  day  must  recognize 
among  others  the  following  facts : 

First:  The  child,  on  coming  into  the  world,  differs  from 
the  animal  in  one  important  respect:  its  instincts  are 
largely  atrophied;  it  is  almost  completely  plastic,  but  this 
plasticity  is  of  the  passive  sort.  The  child  is  open  to  all 

146 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  EXPERIENCE          147 

kinds  of  impressions,  and  the  manner  of  its  adjustment 
to  its  environment  depends  on  the  sort  of  education  it 
receives. 

Second:  There  is  awaiting  the  child  a  social  inheritance 
accumulated  by  the  efforts  of  the  race.  To  this  inheritance 
the  mind  of  the  child  must  be  adjusted.  Here  again,  the 
:node  of  adjustment  of  the  child  is  determined  by  the 
prevalent  system  of  education. 

Third:  In  some  systems,  the  Chinese  for  instance,  the 
aim  is  to  have  the  child  take  over  in  rigid,  unchanging 
form  the  various  elements  of  its  inheritance.  The  result 
is  to  substitute  for  the  original  plasticity  of  the  child  a 
fired  way  of  thinking  and  acting  which  is  simply  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  thought  and  action  of  the  past  without  regard 
to  the  changes  in  the  environment. 

Fourth:  In  other  systems,  notably  the  Christian,  the 
object  is  to  have  the  child  enter  into  its  inheritance  from 
the  past,  but  at  the  same  time  to  widen  out  its  freedom. 
The  original  plasticity  disappears  but  the  disappearance 
is  followed,  not  by  rigid  form,  but  by  a  higher  activity  and 
a  greater  power  of  self-determination  with  reference  to 
the  changing  environment. 

Fifth:  The  means  by  which  this  end  is  obtained  consists 
in  leading  the  mind  from  adjustment  to  the  particular 
concrete  case  to  a  broader  sort  of  adjustment  in  which 
the  mind  looks  beyond  the  concrete  fact  to  the  under- 
lying principle  or  law.  It  is  not  merely  the  several  items 
of  knowledge  transmitted  from  the  past  that  the  mind 
must  obtain,  but  rather  an  insight  which  enables  it  to  see 
them  in  their  relations  and  hence  to  shape  its  actions 
in  accordance  with  what  is  fundamental.  In  a  word,  not 
only  must  the  teacher  act  in  obedience  to  the  laws  govern- 
ing the  mind's  unfolding,  but  his  chief  aim  must  be  to 


148  PHILOSOPHY   OF   EDUCATION 

lead  the  pupils  to  recognize  these  laws  and  to  obey  them. 
The  teacher  must,  therefore,  aim,  not  so  much  at  the 
building  up  of  adequate  adjustments  to  environment,  as 
at  the  building  up  of  plastic  or  modifiable  adjustments  to 
environment. 

It  has  been  repeatedly  pointed  out  that  the  human 
infant  is  born  into  the  world  with  a  wholly  inadequate  set 
of  adjustments  to  the  environment  in  which  he  is  destined 
to  live.  In  fact,  he  differs  from  the  higher  animals,  not 
so  much  in  his  ability  to  acquire  new  adjustments,  as  in 
his  inability  to  live  without  the  adjustments  which  he 
acquires  for  himself  through  his  own  experience  or  through 
the  experience  of  the  race. 

It  should  be  noted  here  that  the  phrase  "acquiring  new 
adjustments"  may  lead  the  unwary  into  a  grave  error, 
for  there  is  in  reality  no  such  thing  as  acquiring  new  ad- 
justments. Mental  life  is  a  continuity,  and  the  most  that 
experience  can  do,  whether  it  be  personal  or  racial,  is  to 
modify  the  preexisting  adjustments. 

The  instincts  of  the  young  animal  are  practically  rigid 
and  unmodifiable,  while  the  instincts  of  the  human  infant 
are  rudimentary  and  plastic,  and  they  are  therefore  capable 
of  taking  on  profound  modifications.  These  modifica- 
tions may  be,  from  the  beginning,  rigid,  unchanging 
habits,  and  where  this  is  the  case  there  is  present  an 
arrest  of  development.  The  education  that  would 
effectively  lead  the  child  into  a  full  measure  of  the  in- 
heritance which  the  race  holds  in  trust  for  him,  must, 
therefore,  avoid  with  scrupulous  care  the  implanting  of 
rigid  and  unmodifiable  habits  in  the  young  child.  There 
is  a  limit  fixed  by  nature  to  the  plastic  period  of  childhood, 
and  while  this  limit  may  be  pushed  forward  by  an  educa- 
tion that  is  conducted  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  EXPERIENCE         149 

mental  development,  it  cannot  be  wholly  removed  by  any 
method  of  education  that  has  thus  far  been  devised. 

Professor  Bagley1  thus  formulates  what  he  conceives  to 
be  the  most  fundamental  principle  of  education :  "Funda- 
mentally the  possibility  of  education  depends  upon  the 
capacity  of  the  organism  to  profit  by  past  experiences. 
In  one  way  or  another  the  facing  of  past  situations  comes 
to  modify  present  and  future  adjustment.  Education 
in  its  broadest  sense  means  just  this :  acquiring  experiences 
that  will  serve  to  modify  inherited  adjustments."  Evi- 
dently this  definition  should  be  corrected  so  as  to  read: 
acquiring  experiences  that  will  serve  to  modify  inherited 
or  previously  acquired  adjustments,  for  the  educative 
process  as  it  is  actually  carried  out  is  far  more  extensively 
occupied  with  modifying  previous  habits  than  with 
modifying  the  meager  inheritance  of  the  child's  instincts. 

There  is  no  room  to  doubt  the  fact  that  experience  is, 
and  must  always  remain,  one  of  the  most  important 
factors  through  which  education  attains  its  various  aims. 
This  point  of  view,  moreover,  tends  to  bring  out  in  a  clear 
light  some  of  the  striking  differences  which  separate  man 
from  the  higher  animals.  Commenting  on  this  phase  of 
the  question  Professor  Bagley2  says :  "Whatever  theory  may 
be  called  upon  to  explain  the  origin  of  instinct,  however,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  a  large  number  of  animals  are 
entirely  dependent  upon  instinctive  reactions  for  adjust- 
ment to  the  environment.  Reaction  with  them  is  purely 
mechanical,  the  same  stimulus  or  combination  of  stimuli 
uniformly  giving  rise  to  the  same  adjustment.  Such 
animals  are  not  able  to  apply  experience  to  the  improve- 
ment of  adjustment,  and  are  consequently  not  amenable 

1  The  Educative  Process.  New  York,  1906,  p.  3. 
*  Op.  cit..  p  6. 


150  PHILOSOPHY  or  EDUCATION 

to  the  influences  of  education.  At  just  what  point  in 
the  animal  series  the  lower  limit  of  educability  is  to  be 
placed  is  still  a  matter  of  dispute,  but  it  is  generally  con- 
ceded that  the  mammals,  the  birds,  and  at  least  some  of 
the  fishes  are  able  to  profit  by  experience  in  varying 
degrees,  while  the  invertebrates  and  the  primitive  proto- 
zoa probably  lack  this  capacity.  .  .  .  But  while  man 
shares  with  some  of  the  higher  vertebrates  the  capacity 
for  education,  there  is  one  point  in  which  his  position  is 
practically  unique.  Man  must  be  subjected  to  an  edu- 
cative process  before  he  can  complete  his  development, 
and  this  is  true  in  like  degree  of  none  of  the  lower  orders. 
"The  moth  is  'born'  just  as  good  a  moth  as  either  of 
its  parents.  But  the  infant,  even  if  he  could  reach 
maturity  without  the  aid  of  other  human  beings,  would 
certainly  not  be  so  good  a  man  as  his  father.  What  he 
would  lack  are  the  great  essentials  of  human  life  that 
are  transmitted,  not  directly  through  the  germ  cell,  but 
indirectly  by  social  contact — culture,  'education,'  and 
civilized  habits."  l 

The  apparent  linking  together  of  man  and  the  higher 
animals  in  the  foregoing  passages  should  not  lead  to  any 
hasty  conclusions  concerning  man's  place  in  nature  or 
even  concerning  Professor  Bagley's  view  of  the  matter, 
for  he  says  a  little  later  on  in  the  same  chapter:  "While 
it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  some  of  the  higher  forms  below 
man  train  their  young  during  a  plastic  period  of  infancy, 
it  is  not  altogether  clear  that  this  training  forms  an 
appreciable  advance  over  the  transmission  of  characters 
through  physical  heredity.  That  is  to  say,  the  training 
in  itself  is  largely  instinctive,  following  the  same  plan 
generation  after  generation,  and  influenced  very  little,  if 

1  Op.  tit.,  p.  9. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  EXPERIENCE  151 

at  all,  by  the  experience  of  the  parent.  And  at  the  very 
best,  of  course,  the  possibility  of  transmitting  experience 
is,  in  animals  below  man,  greatly  curtailed  by  the  lack  of 
an  efficient  medium  of  communication.  It  is  clear,  then, 
that  man's  supremacy  in  the  animal  series  is  due  to  his 
ability  to  profit,  not  only  by  his  own  experiences,  but  also 
by  the  experiences  of  others.  Not  only  is  this  true,  but 
it  is  also  not  to  be  doubted  that,  without  this  two-fold 
capacity,  man  would  be  far  below  many  other  verte- 
brates and  would  be  placed  at  a  tremendous  disadvantage 
in  the  struggle  for  existence.1" 

This  same  thought  is  expressed  in  an  oft  quoted  passage 
from  the  pen  of  J.  W.  Powell:  "Every  child  is  born  desti- 
tute of  things  possessed  in  manhood  which  distinguish  him 
from  the  lower  animals.  Of  all  industries  he  is  artless;  of 
all  institutions  he  is  lawless;  of  all  languages  he  is  speech- 
less; of  all  philosophies  he  is  opinionless;  of  all  reasoning 
he  is  thoughtless;  but  arts,  institutions,  languages, 
opinions,  and  mentations  he  acquires  as  years  go  by  from 
childhood  to  manhood.  In  all  these  respects  the  new- 
born babe  is  hardly  the  peer  of  the  new-born  beast;  but, 
as  the  years  pass,  ever  and  ever  he  exhibits  his  superiority 
in  all  the  great  classes  of  activities  until  the  distance  by 
which  he  is  separated  from  the  brute  is  so  great  that  his 
realm  of  existence  is  in  another  kingdom  of  nature."2 

The  human  infant  stands  almost  alone  in  his  capacity 
to  profit  by  his  own  experiences  and  he  stands  absolutely 
alone  in  his  capacity  to  profit  by  the  experience  of  the 
race.  It  is  still  an  open  question  with  biologists  whether 
the  animal  can  transmit  in  any  degree  acquired  character- 
istics through  the  channels  of  physical  heredity,  but  all 

I0p.  tit.,  p.  u. 

1  Cf.,  A.  F.  Chamberlain.  The  Child,  London,  1900,  p.  1. 


152  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

students  of  the  subject  are  agreed  as  to  the  substantial 
truth  of  the  statement  that  acquired  characteristics  can- 
not be  so  transmitted.  It  is,  on  the  contrary,  the  indis- 
putable prerogative  of  man  to  transmit  to  his  offspring, 
through  social  heredity,  acquired  characteristics.  Experi- 
ences that  modify  adjustment  certainly  give  rise  to 
acquired  characteristics.1  And  it  is  precisely  the  business 
of  education  to  transmit  to  the  offspring  of  each  generation 
as  large  a  share  as  circumstances  will  permit  of  those 
acquired  characteristics  which  have  in  the  past  proved 
serviceable  to  the  race. 

From  this  point  of  view  it  may  be  well  to  conceive  of 
the  sum-total  of  the  child's  social  inheritance  as  experi- 
ence, but  this  use  of  the  word  "experience"  is  liable  to 
generate  misunderstandings.  Waiving  the  question  for 
the  present  as  to  whether  the  child's  social  inheritance 
does  not  contain  elements  which  have  a  supernatural 
origin,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  child  is  affected  in 
an  entirely  different  way  by  his  personal  experiences  from 
the  way  in  which  he  is  affected  by  the  experiences  of  others, 
whether  these  be  conveyed  to  him  through  language  or 
through  art  or  in  any  other  manner  known  to  the  educator. 

When  it  is  said  that  "experience  is  the  best  of  teachers" 
it  is  not  "race  experience"  but  personal  experience  that  is 
usually  meant.  The  saying,  in  fact,  involves  a  contrast 
between  the  results  of  personal  experience  and  the  body 
of  wisdom  derived  in  so  large  a  part  through  race  expe- 
rience which  it  is  the  business  of  education  to  transmit 
to  the  pupil.  In  a  certain  sense  it  is  true  that  "experience 
is  the  best  of  teachers,"  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
experience  is  at  the  same  time  the  slowest  of  teachers 
and  the  most  expensive. 

1  Cf .,  Bagley.  op.  cit.,  p.  21. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  EXPERIENCE  153 

In  spite  of  the  brain  power  with  which  nature  has 
endowed  the  human  infant,  in  spite  of  his  native  tendency 
to  profit  by  his  own  experience,  which  tendency  he  inherits 
to  a  degree  far  surpassing  any  other  animal,  his  progress 
on  the  way  towards  the  high  plane  of  civilized  life  on 
which  man  now  lives  would  be  infinitesimal  were  he 
abandoned  to  the  light  derived  from  his  individual 
experience.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  child  has  no  means  of  profiting  by  race 
experience,  no  means  of  taking  over  to  himself  his  social 
inheritance,  except  through  his  individual  experience. 
However  limited  in  extent,  therefore,  may  be  the  results 
of  his  individual  experiences,  these  are  absolutely  indispen- 
sable to  him,  forming  as  they  do  the  sole  key  by  which  he 
may  unlock  the  rich  stores  which  await  him  in  his 
social  inheritance. 

Personal  experience  has  two  chief  functions  to  perform 
in  the  educative  process:  it  is  to  the  child  a  means 
of  modifying  and  improving  his  adjustments  to  his  en- 
vironment and  it  is  a  means  of  enabling  him  to  still 
further  perfect  his  adjustments  to  environment  through 
the  experience  of  others. 

Every  experience  of  the  child  has  its  immediate  effect 
in  modifying  his  adjustments  to  his  present  and  future 
environments,  and  it  has  its  indirect  effect  also  in  deter- 
mining the  character  and  extent  of  what  he  may  later  on 
take  over  to  himself  from  the  wisdom  and  experience  of 
the  race.  Hence  the  importance  of  guiding  the  child  in 
the  acquisition  of  personal  experiences.  If  these  experi- 
ences are  properly  selected  with  reference  to  the  child's 
present  condition  and  with  reference  to  his  future  develop- 
ment, the  foundation  of  his  education  will  be  well  laid. 
And,  on  the  other  hand,  if  he  is  led  into  experiences  for 


154  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

which  he  is  not  prepared,  or  into  experiences  that  will  turn 
his  development  into  wrong  channels,  the  result  will  be 
either  an  arrest  of  mental  development  or  a  development 
of  those  characteristics  which  will  unfit  him  either  in  the 
present  or  in  the  future  to  take  his  place  as  an  efficient 
member  of  civilized  society. 

Experience,  it  must  be  remembered,  will  function  just 
as  efficiently  in  the  wrong  as  in  the  right  direction.  Fagin 
deliberately  took  advantage  of  this  fact  in  educating 
Oliver  Twist  to  steal,  and  Dr.  Katharine  Dopp,  with 
probably  the  best  of  intentions,  leads  the  unfortunate 
children  who  may  be  required  to  use  the  "Industrial  and 
Social  History  Series"  into  bestial  ways  by  inducing 
them  to  live  through  in  imagination  such  scenes  as  "The 
Feast  of  the  Cave  Dwellers." 

The  Master  warned  His  followers  against  the  danger  of 
destroying  the  lives  of  the  little  ones  by  exposing  them  to 
vicious  models  or  to  experiences  which  are  calculated  to 
produce  evil  adjustments :  "And  whosoever  shall  scandalize 
one  of  these  little  ones  that  believe  in  Me;  it  were  better 
for  him  that  a  millstone  were  hanged  about  his  neck,  and 
he  were  cast  into  the  sea."1 

The  child's  individual  experiences  may  be  selected  so 
as  to  produce  any  one  of  the  following  three  effects:  (l)  a 
definite  arrest  of  mental  development  in  any  given  direc- 
tion; (2)  a  development  in  a  wrong  direction,  and  (3)  a 
development  in  the  right  direction. 

A  series  of  experiences  of  a  disagreeable  and  painful 
character  is  calculated  to  build  up  inhibitions  against 
activities  in  the  future  of  a  similar  nature,  and  hence  they 
cause  the  arrest  of  mental  development  in  the  direction 
in  question.  Thus  the  rigid  observance  of  the  Puritanical 
Sabbath  has  arrested  the  religious  development  of  many  a 

1  Mark  iz,  41. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  EXPERIENCE  155 

child,  and  it  has  given  to  the  world  multitudes  of  men  who 
avoid  church  and  who  find  in  themselves  no  response  to 
the  abundant  blessings  which  religion  has  to  offer. 

The  same  result  in  a  somewhat  modified  form  has 
frequently  been  reached  through  the  practice  of  com- 
pelling the  children,  under  threats  of  punishment,  to 
memorize  catechetical  formulae  which  are  unintelligible 
to  them.  And  we  may  trace  to  the  same  source  the 
condition  of  many  a  high  school  pupil  who  will  tell  you 
in  a  moment  of  confidence  that  he  has  no  talent  for 
mathematics,  although  he  will  frequently  assure  you  that 
this  lack  of  talent  is  due  to  his  physical  inheritance  in- 
stead of  to  his  early  school  environment  and  to  the  vicious 
methods  employed  in  teaching  the  elements  of  this 
particular  science. 

It  is  true  that  in  such  cases  as  we  have  here  cited  the 
disagreeable  character  of  the  experience  is  not  the  sole 
factor  in  building  up  the  inhibition.  The  root  of  the 
evil  is  to  be  found  in  the  unpreparedness  of  the  child  for 
the  experience  that  is  being  forced  upon  him  prematurely. 

The  recognition  of  the  fact  that  evil  companionship 
corrupts  good  morals  is  as  old  as  the  world.  The 
notion  that  Socrates  was  corrupting  the  youth  of 
Athens  led  his  fellow-citizens  to  impose  upon  him  the 
death  sentence.  And  society  has,  at  all  times,  found  it 
necessary  to  protect  youth  against  disseminators  of  false 
and  dangerous  doctrines  no  less  than  against  those  who 
would  lead  the  innocent  into  immoral  practices.  But 
punishment,  no  matter  how  drastic,  inflicted  upon  the 
evildoers  seldom  proves  effective  in  arresting  further 
development  along  these  evil  lines.  The  reason  for  this 
failure  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  vicious  experiences 
into  which  these  wicked  people  lead  the  youths  whom 


156  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

they  are  able  to  reach  lies  so  close  to  the  natural  develop- 
ment of  man's  animal  nature  that  vital  continuity  is 
easily  and  effectively  secured. 

The  potency  of  well-chosen  and  worthy  examples  in 
leading  children  to  a  noble  development  is  universally 
recognized.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  we  seek  worthy 
companionship  for  the  young,  and  that  we  hold  up  to  their 
imitation  the  lives  of  great  and  noble  men  and  women. 
Christ  commands  His  disciples  to  follow  in  His  footsteps 
and  to  imitate  His  example.  And  to  secure  imitation  of 
their  virtues,  the  Church  lifts  to  her  altars  models  of 
virtue  taken  from  every  age  and  from  every  station  of  life. 

Education  is  coextensive  with  life,  for  experience  is  the 
great  teacher  and  does  its  work  at  all  times  and  in  all 
places,  although  its  efficiency  varies  greatly  as  we  pass 
from  childhood  to  adult  life  and  from  the  haphazard 
experiences  engendered  by  daily  contact  with  environ- 
mental forces  to  the  deliberately  selected  series  of  experi- 
ences which  are  controlled  by  educative  agencies. 

The  effect  of  experience,  however,  is  so  uncertain  and 
its  direction  may  be  fraught  with  such  grave  consequences 
for  good  or  evil  to  the  individual  and  to  society  that  it 
would  be  highly  imprudent  to  expose  the  child  to  hap- 
hazard experiences  until  such  time  as  he  has  attained  an 
individual  development  which  will  enable  him  to  select 
prudently  the  experiences  to  which  he  will  subject  himself. 

The  home  is  the  first  and  the  most  important  of  schools; 
it  shelters  the  early  days  of  the  infant's  life  and  parental 
love  controls  the  experiences  to  which  the  little  one  it 
subjected  until  such  time  as  age  and  conditions  make  it 
possible  for  the  school  and  the  church  to  share  this 
responsibility. 

To  intelligently  control  the  child's  experiences  and  his 


THE  FUNCTION  OF   EXPERIENCE  157 

education  in  general,  three  things  are  indispensable:  (l) 
The  teacher,  whether  he  be  parent,  priest,  or  presiding 
officer  in  the  school,  must  hold  a  clear  and  definite  ide  1 
of  the  kind  of  men  and  women  into  which  he  wishes  the 
children  committed  to  his  care,  to  develop.  (2)  He 
must  understand  the  children  over  whom  he  presides: 
He  must  know  the  present  status  of  their  mental  life  and 
the  laws  which  govern  then*  unfolding  minds  and  hearts; 
and  (3)  he  must  know  the  means  that  are  at  his  disposal 
for  the  performance  of  the  great  task  which  he  under- 
takes, i.e.,  the  transformation  of  children  of  the  flesh  into 
children  of  God. 

To  impart  to  future  teachers  this  three-fold  qualifica- 
tion is  the  express  aim  of  the  normal  school  and  the 
teachers  college.  But  the  scope  of  these  schools  is 
confined,  for  the  most  part,  to  the  imparting  of  skill,  in 
applying  to  the  process  of  education  that  which  the  candi- 
date already  possesses.  Before  entering  the  professional 
school  in  which  a  beginning  is  to  be  made  in  acquiring  the 
difficult  art  of  teaching,  the  candidate  should  possess  at 
least  an  elementary  knowledge  of  general  psychology,  a 
good  working  knowledge  of  genetic  psychology  and  a 
mastery  of  a  goodly  share  of  the  social  inheritance  of  the 
race,  and  he  should  have  realized  in  himself  a  worthy 
personality. 

With  such  a  foundation  to  build  upon,  the  professional 
school  may  hope  to  graduate  teachers  who  will  be  able  to 
guide  intelligently  the  children  committed  to  their  care, 
both  in  the  selecting  of  personal  experiences  and  in 
the  profitable  utilization  of  those  experiences  in  the  taking 
over  of  their  social  inheritance. 


Part  II 

Educational  Aims 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  ULTIMATE  AIM  OF  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION 

Man's  physical  inheritance  does  not  differ  in  nature  or 
in  trend  from  the  inheritance  of  the  higher  animals.  The 
differences  discernible  are  only  differences  of  degree.  The 
human  infant's  instinctive  inheritance  is  insufficient  to 
govern  life's  processes  and  to  bring  the  infant  securely 
to  man's  estate.  Human  instincts  are  rudimentary  or 
vestigial,  but  all  there  is  of  them  is  purely  animal  and 
egoistical. 

If  education  could  do  nothing  more  than  bring  about 
the  full  development  of  what  is  laid  down  in  the  child's 
physical  heredity,  then  the  ultimate  aim  of  education 
would  be  the  highest  possible  development  of  man's 
animal  nature — of  his  greed  and  lust  and  self-assertion. 

It  is,  of  course,  well  to  secure  a  full  development  of 
man's  physical  nature.  Life  is  enriched  by  each  addition 
to  the  keenness  of  his  senses,  by  each  addition  to  the 
strength  and  agility  of  his  muscles,  by  each  increase  in 
the  vigor  of  his  vital  processes.  The  accomplishment  of 
this  purpose  is  a  legitimate  aim  in  education  so  long  as  it 
is  held  in  due  subordination  to  the  higher  aims  of  life. 

That  there  are  educational  leaders  who  seek  for  the 
ultimate  aim  of  education  in  man's  animal  inheritance  may 
be  seen  by  such  statements  as  the  following  from  the  pen 
of  Dr.  Bobbitt:  "The  child  cannot  be  moulded  to  our 
will.  The  design  laid  in  heredity  is  the  only  one  that 
can  be  worked  out  in  actuality."1 

The  tendency  to  seek  the  ultimate  end  of  education  in 

1  Proc.  Child  Conf.     Worcester.  1909,  p.  74. 

161 


162  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

man's  physical  inheritance  is,  in  fact,  inseparably  bound 
up  with  the  culture,  epoch  theory.  Dr.  Partridge,  in 
his  Epitome  of  President  Hall's  Educational  Writings, 
says:  "The  new  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  childhood 
and  youth  that  the  genetic  psychology  has  brought  to 
view  shows  clearly  the  educational  problem  that  is  before 
us,  and  at  the  same  time  reveals  the  chief  end  and  aim 
and  underlying  principles  of  all  education.  The  trans- 
mission of  knowledge  is  but  a  small  part  of  the  work. 
Its  great  purpose  is  biological;  it  is  to  develop  the  child 
normally,  to  the  greatest  maturity  and  sanity.  This 
needs  to  be  said  over  and  over  again,  for  it  is  the  central 
thought  of  the  new  education  which  is  founded  upon 
biology."1 

A  little  further  on  Dr.  Partridge  adds  an  illuminating 
statement  concerning  the  meaning  President  Hall  attaches 
to  biological  education :  "  Biological  education  demands,  as 
its  first  principle,  that  we  stand  out  of  the  way  of  nature  and 
allow  it  to  have  its  own  way  with  the  child.  It  declares 
that  the  great  need  of  the  whole  period  of  development 
of  the  child  is  to  live  out  each  stage,  lingering  in  that  stage 
as  though  it  were  to  be  the  last.  It  asks  that  the  child's 
growth  be,  for  the  most  part,  retarded  rather  than  hast- 
ened, in  order  to  give  all  the  nascent  stages  time  to  fully 
ripen.  To  linger  at  leisure  in  each  recapitulatory  stage, 
so  that  each  individual  may  experience  all  the  life  the 
race  has  experienced,  is  the  ideal."2 

We  have  quoted  this  passage  at  some  length  because 
the  ultimate  aim  of  education  therein  set  forth  not  only 
conflicts  with  the  fundamental  teachings  of  Christianity, 
but  because  it  is  equally  opposed  to  the  secure  findings  of 


1  Partridge,  Gen.  Phil.     Ed.  New  York.  1912,  p.  100. 
1  Op.  cit.,  p.  115ff. 


THE  ULTIMATE  AIM  OF  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION       163 

biology,  for  if  there  is  any  one  truth  that  stands  out  more 
conspicuously  than  another  in  the  science  of  embryology 
it  is  that  nature  bends  every  effort  towards  preventing 
the  individual  from  lingering  unduly  or  from  functioning 
at  all  in  any  of  the  ancestral  forms  through  which  the 
race  has  passed  and  through  the  shadows  of  which  the 
individual  must  proceed  without  lingering  or  halting  by 
the  way  and  without  functioning,  if  he  is  ever  to  reach 
the  adult  plane.  The  theory  put  forth  by  the  author  of 
Genetic  Philosophy  of  Education  must,  therefore,  seek 
support  elsewhere  than  in  the  biological  sciences.  All  the 
knowledge  that  biology  has  accumulated  concerning  the 
development  of  the  individual  and  the  development  of 
the  race  negatives  the  postulates  of  this  school. 

The  ascendency  of  the  ethical  over  the  biological 
elements  in  man  is  thus  stated  by  Thomas  Huxley  in  his 
Essay  on  Evolution  and  Ethics:  "Man,  the  animal,  in 
fact,  has  worked  his  way  to  the  headship  of  the  sentient 
world,  and  has  become  the  superb  animal  which  he  is, 
in  virtue  of  his  success  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  The 
conditions  having  been  of  a  certain  order,  man's  organiza- 
tion has  adjusted  itself  to  them  better  than  that  of  his 
competitors  in  the  cosmic  strife.  In  the  case  of  mankind, 
the  self-assertion,  the  unscrupulous  seizing  upon  all  that 
can  be  grasped,  the  tenacious  holding  of  all  that  can  be 
kept,  which  constitute  the  essence  of  the  struggle  for 
existence,  have  answered.  For  his  successful  progress, 
throughout  the  savage  state,  man  has  been  largely  in- 
debted to  those  qualities  which  he  shares  with  the  ape  and 
the  tiger;  his  exceptional  physical  organization;  his  cun- 
ning, his  sociability,  his  curiosity,  and  his  imitativeness; 
his  ruthless  and  ferocious  destructiveness  when  his  anger 
is  roused  by  opposition. 


164  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

"But,  in  proportion  as  men  have  passed  from  anarchy 
to  social  organization,  and  in  proportion  as  civilization 
has  grown  in  worth,  these  deeply  ingrained  serviceable 
qualities  have  become  defects.  After  the  manner  of 
successful  persons,  civilized  man  would  gladly  kick  down 
the  ladder  by  which  he  has  climbed.  He  would  be  only 
too  pleased  to  see  'the  ape  and  tiger  die.'  But  they 
decline  to  suit  his  convenience;  and  the  unwelcome  in- 
trusion of  these  boon  companions  of  his  hot  youth  into 
the  ranged  existence  of  civil  life  adds  pains  and  griefs, 
innumerable  and  immeasurably  great,  to  those  which  the 
cosmic  process  necessarily  brings  on  the  mere  animal.  In 
fact,  civilized  man  brands  all  these  ape  and  tiger  prompt- 
ings with  the  name  of  sins;  he  punishes  many  of  the  acts 
which  flow  from  them  as  crimes;  and,  in  extreme  cases, 
he  does  his  best  to  put  an  end  to  the  survival  of  the  fittest 
of  former  days  by  axe  and  rope. 

"I  have  said  that  civilized  man  has  reached  this  point; 
the  assertion  is  perhaps  too  broad  and  general;  I  had 
better  put  it  that  ethical  man  has  attained  thereto.  The 
science  of  ethics  professes  to  furnish  us  with  a  reasoned 
rule  of  life;  to  tell  us  what  is  right  action  and  why  it  is  so. 
Whatever  differences  of  opinion  may  exist  among  experts, 
there  is  a  general  consensus  that  the  ape  and  tiger  methods 
of  the  struggle  for  existence  are  not  reconcilable  with 
sound  ethical  principles."1 

From  this  statement  of  the  evolution  of  the  human 
race  it  is  clear  that  even  those  who  accept  man's  lowly 
origin  must  deny  the  contention  that  the  highest  aim  of 
education  is  to  develop  in  each  individual  in  succession 
the  ancestral  phases  of  race  history.  On  the  contrary, 
man's  ascent  to  the  high  plane  which  he  now  occupies  is 

i  Huxley.  Evo.  &  Eth.     New  York,  1894,  p.  51ff. 


THE  ULTIMATE  AIM  OF  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION       165 

possible  only  on  condition  that  education  successfully 
combats  the  development  of  the  distinctively  animal 
traits  of  his  heredity.  One  of  the  aims  of  education  must 
be  to  secure  the  death  of  the  "ape  and  tiger."  In  a  word, 
education  must  aim  at  bringing  the  flesh  into  subjection 
to  the  spirit.  It  must  aim  at  bringing  conduct  under  a 
reasoned  rule  of  life  which  is  not,  and  never  can  be,  the 
the  mere  exaltation  of  animal  instinct.  The  verdict  of 
science,  therefore,  as  summed  up  by  so  eminent  a  protag- 
onist as  Professor  Huxley,  would  seem  to  be  in  entire 
agreement  with  the  claims  of  the  Christian  Church,  the 
difference  being  that  the  Professor,  speaking  in  the  name 
of  science,  stops  short  of  a  revealed  rule  of  life. 

Even  those  who  have  lost  sight  of  man's  intellectual 
and  spiritual  nature,  and  who  regard  him  as  a  mere 
animal,  differing  from  other  animals  only  in  the  degree  in 
which  his  brain  is  developed,  may  not  seek  for  the  ulti- 
mate end  of  education  within  the  bounds  of  man's  physical 
inheritance.  A  fortiori  those  who  believe  in  man's  high 
destiny  as  a  child  of  God  and  heir  to  eternal  bliss,  and 
who  believe  that  man  is  the  possessor  of  an  intellectual 
and  moral  nature  which  lifts  him  forever  above  the  plane 
of  mere  animal  life,  must  seek  the  ultimate  aim  of  educa- 
tion in  the  development  of  man's  higher  nature  and  in  the 
subordination  to  it  of  his  animal  instincts. 

This  does  not  mean  that  man's  animal  nature  is  to  be 
neglected  or  destroyed,  for  man's  intellect  together  with 
his  social  inheritance  enables  him  to  secure  adjustments 
of  his  animal  nature  to  his  physical  environment  which 
are  superior  to  anything  which  could  be  achieved  by  any 
development  whatsoever  of  his  animal  instincts.  This 
triumph  of  the  spirit  over  the  flesh  is  not  to  be  achieved 
with  ease  or  facility  and  were  the  individual  left  to  his 


166  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

own  devices,  he  would  probably  not  succeed  to  any  great 
extent  in  enthroning  his  higher  nature  over  his  physical 
instincts.  Indeed,  the  experience  of  the  race  has  amply 
proven  that  the  intelligence,  even  of  the  race  as  a  whole, 
is  insufficient  for  the  attainment  of  this  end  without  the 
aid  of  divine  revelation  and  of  divine  grace. 

The  problem  confronting  educators  in  this  respect  is 
not  different  today  from  what  it  was  in  the  days  when 
St.  Paul  wrote  to  the  Galatians  these  memorable  words: 
"For  you,  brethren,  have  been  called  unto  liberty:  only 
make  not  liberty  an  occasion  to  the  flesh,  but  by  charity 
of  the  spirit  serve  one  another.  For  all  the  law  is  ful- 
filled hi  one  word:  Thou  shall  lave  thy  neigJibor  as  thy- 
self. But  if  you  bite  and  devour  one  another;  take  heed 
you  be  not  consumed  one  of  another.  I  say  then,  walk 
in  the  spirit,  and  you  shall  not  fulfil  the  lusts  of  the  flesh. 
For  the  flesh  lusteth  against  the  spirit:  and  the  spirit 
against  the  flesh;  for  these  are  contrary  one  to  another."1 

In  our  endeavor  to  lift  man's  spiritual  nature  into  control 
of  his  flesh,  we  should  avail  ourselves,  as  far  as  may  be, 
of  nature's  guidance  and  nature's  help.  It  is  well,  there- 
fore, from  the  outset  to  remember  that  in  the  long  develop- 
ment of  animal  life  upon  the  earth,,  nature  has  ever  bent 
her  forces  to  the  suppression  of  adjustments  to  environ- 
ments which  were  no  longer  serviceable.  Changes  in 
environment  constantly  tended  to  render  adjustments 
obsolete  and  either  worthless  or  injurious  to  the  animal. 

In  the  recapitulation  of  race  history  revealed  in  the 
development  of  each  animal  we  find  numerous  structures 
atrophied  to  such  an  extent  as  to  render  them  utterly 
incapable  of  functioning.  In  the  human  infant,  in  like 
manner,  we  find  nature  constantly  at  work  atrophying 

1  Gal.  v,  13-16. 


THE  ULTIMATE  AIM  OF  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION       167 

and  suppressing  the  ape  and  tiger  promptings  which, 
having  served  a  useful  purpose  in  savage  life,  have  ceased 
to  be  serviceable  to  civilized  man.  Education  is  called 
upon  to  second  nature's  efforts  in  this  direction  and  to 
protect  the  child  from  experiences  which  would  tend  to 
reinstate  and  to  develop  the  undesirable  and  obsolete 
instincts  which  still  continue  to  appear,  albeit  in  rudi- 
mentary form,  in  each  human  infant.  It  should  be  further 
noted  that  nature  does  not  destroy  the  obsolete  adjust- 
ment by  any  direct  attack,  but  gradually  removes  it  by 
substituting  a  better  adjustment.  The  obsolete  structure, 
thus  being  denied  function,  gradually  atrophies  and 
disappears. 

If  the  educator  is  to  follow  nature's  leadership,  the  very 
last  thing  he  should  do  is  to  permit  the  child  to  "live  out 
each  stage,  lingering  in  that  stage  as  though  it  were  to  be 
the  last."  The  last  thing  that  education  should  ask  is: 
"That  the  child's  growth  be,  for  the  most  part,  retarded 
rather  than  hastened  in  order  to  give  all  the  nascent 
stages  time  to  fully  ripen.  To  linger  at  leisure  in  each 
recapitulatory  stage  so  that  each  individual  may  experi- 
ence all  the  life  the  race  has  experienced." 

From  the  Christian  point  of  view  it  is  not  difficult  to 
exclude  a  number  of  aims  proposed  in  the  current  litera- 
ture of  the  subject  as  the  ultimate  aims  of  education. 
There  is  no  room  to  doubt  that  education  should  not 
lead  man's  soul  into  the  bondage  of  the  flesh,  nor  is  there 
any  room  to  doubt  that  fatal  consequences  must  result 
from  the  indiscriminate  development  of  the  child's 
instincts,  and  from  reinstating  in  the  unfolding  mind  and 
heart  the  savage  ways  or"  animal  nature  and  of  primitive 
savage  life. 

By   elimination,   we   may    limit    the    problem  before 


168  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

us,  but  it  still  remains  a  difficult  task  to  define  in 
a  positive  way  the  various  aims  which  should  be  pursued 
in  the  educative  process,  the  relationship  of  these  aims 
to  each  other,  and  the  various  means  by  which  the  ulti- 
mate aim  of  Christian  education  is  to  be  attained.  The 
human  intellect,  left  to  its  own  devices,  has  in  the  past 
frequently  blundered  in  its  attempt  to  solve  the  many 
problems  involved  in  this  task.  For  illustrations  of  this 
failure,  we  need  only  recall  the  caste  system  of  India; 
the  rigid  reinstatement  of  the  past  which  has,  for  so  long 
a  time  characterized  Chinese  education;  the  utter  sub- 
ordination of  the  individual  to  the  State  in  Sparta;  or 
the  frantic  individualism  which  deluged  France  with 
blood  in  the  days  of  the  revolution  as  the  outcome  of 
Rousseau's  cry — "Back  to  nature."  And,  passing  from 
these  extreme  examples,  very  instructive  instances  of  a 
similar  failure  may  still  be  found  in  our  midst,  not  only 
in  schools  that  are  frankly  non-Christian,  but  in  so-called 
Christian  schools  that  still  persist  in  their  efforts  to  build 
up  in  the  pupils  adjustments  to  environmental  conditions 
which  have  long  since  ceased  to  exist. 

In  this  vitally  important  matter  Jesus  Christ  did  not 
leave  His  followers  to  wander  in  darkness,  nor  did  He 
abandon  them  to  the  reckless  theorizing  and  experiment- 
ing of  irresponsible  pedagogues.  He  pointed  out  the  need 
of  divine  guidance  in  this  matter  and  provided  for  it 
through  revealed  truth  and  through  the  ministry  of  His 
Church.  The  need  of  this  guidance  He  proclaimed  to 
His  followers  as  a  self-evident  truth.  "And  He  spoke  also 
to  them  a  similitude:  can  the  blind  lead  the  blind?  Do 
not  they  both  fall  into  the  ditch?"1  And  again,  "As  the 
Father  hath  sent  Me,  I  also  send  you."2  The  same  thought 

1  Luke  vi,  39. 
1  John  xx,  21. 


THE  ULTIMATE  AIM  OF  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION       169 

is  echoed  by  St.  Paul:  "And  how  shall  they  preach  unless 
they  be  sent,  as  it  is  written :  How  beautiful  are  the  feet 
of  them  that  preach  the  gospel  of  peace,  of  them  that  bring 
glad  tidings  of  good  things"1 

Even  at  the  end  of  His  ministry  Jesus  proclaimed  that 
there  were  many  truths  which  His  followers  were  not 
then  prepared  to  receive,  but  He  did  not  leave  them  in 
doubt  concerning  the  ultimate  aim  that  must  animate 
all  human  striving:  "And  calling  the  multitude  together 
with  his  disciples,  he  said  to  them :  If  any  man  will  f ollow 
Me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross,  and  follow 
Me.  For  whosoever  will  save  his  life  shall  lose  it:  and 
whosoever  shall  lose  his  life  for  My  sake  and  the  gospel, 
shall  save  it.  For  what  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain 
the  whole  world  and  suffer  the  loss  of  his  soul."2  To  the 
Christian,  these  words  of  the  Master  are  a  sufficient 
refutation  of  the  findings  of  the  culture  epoch  theory 
and  of  the  teaching  of  all  those  who  would  seek  the  end 
of  education  within  the  bounds  of  man's  animal  in- 
heritance. On  the  other  hand,  no  clearer  positive  formu- 
lation of  the  ultimate  end  of  education  has  ever  been 
given  to  man  than  that  contained  in  these  words  of  the 
Master:  "Thou  shall  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  thy  whole 
heart,  and  with  thy  whole  soul,  and  with  thy  whole  mind. 
This  is  the  greatest  and  the  first  commandment.  And 
the  second  is  like  unto  this:  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself.  On  these  two  commandments  dependeth  the 
whole  law  and  the  prophets."3 

The  Church,  in  the  faithful  discharge  of  her  divine 
commission,  has  ever  held  up  before  her  children  clear- 
cut,  definite  ideals  of  life  which  must  give  direction  to  the 

1  Rom.  x,  15. 

1  Mark  viii,  34-37. 

1  Matt,  xxii,  37-39. 


170  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

unceasing  endeavors  of  all  who  would  be  saved.  To  help 
the  little  ones  entrusted  to  their  care  to  attain  these 
ideals  is  the  only  aim  which  the  Church  has  ever  permitted 
to  those  who  teach  in  her  name.  So  much  importance 
does  the  Church  attach  to  the  functioning  of  these  ideals 
that  she  has  not  contented  herself  with  their  mere  verbal 
formulation.  She  has  ever  held  up  concrete  models  for 
the  imitation  of  all  who  strive  to  attain  the  higher  levels 
of  the  spiritual  life  under  her  guidance  and  inspiration. 
The  life  of  Jesus  Christ  on  earth  is  the  concrete  ideal 
towards  which  all  must  strive.  To  aid  her  children  in 
understanding  this  Model,  the  Church  has  lifted  to  her 
altars  multitudes  of  saints,  each  of  whom  exhibits  in  his 
life  and  actions  some  trait  or  characteristic  of  the  ulti- 
mate Model  of  perfection. 

With  such  definite  ideals,  and  with  no  less  definite 
means  for  their  attainment,  it  was,  of  course,  to  be  ex- 
pected that  the  Church  in  her  educational  system  would 
achieve  noteworthy  results.  These  results  are,  in  fact, 
the  sum  total  of  Christian  civilization.  The  Greek  who, 
in  the  pride  of  his  intellect  relegated  his  wife  to  obscurity 
and  lifted  the  hetaerae  to  the  position  of  honor,  the  Greek 
who  felt  no  shame  in  the  most  unnatural  practices,  and 
who  caused  his  own  children  to  be  sent  to  death  when  they 
did  not  happen  to  please  his  fancy,  was  led  by  the  Church 
to  embrace  the  sweet  yoke  of  the  Gospel,  to  abandon  his 
immoral  ways,  to  lift  woman  to  a  place  of  dignity  by  his 
side,  to  respect  the  individuality  of  the  child  and  the  right 
to  life  of  the  unborn  babe.  And  the  Roman  was  taught 
by  her  that  gentleness,  mercy,  love  and  purity  were  forces 
more  potent  than  armed  legions.  The  wild  nomadic 
tribes  that  swept  down  over  Europe,  leaving  death  and 
destruction  in  their  wake,  were  tamed  by  her  teaching 


THE  ULTIMATE  AIM  OF  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION       171 

and  gradually  led  into  the  ways  of  peace.  From  these 
crude  materials  the  Church  built  up  the  institutions  and 
the  monuments  of  Christian  civilization  which  have 
blessed  the  world  in  so  many  ways. 

If  the  world  today  is  drifting  back  towards  pagan  ideals 
and  towards  the  practices  of  savage  life,  the  cause  may  be 
found  in  the  assumption  of  the  control  of  education  by 
human  agencies  that  refuse  to  follow  the  ideals  set  up  by 
Jesus  Christ  and  maintained  by  His  Church.  Human 
intellect,  in  its  pride,  refuses  the  light  from  above  and  the 
authority  from  on  high  which  had  led  to  such  triumphs  by 
establishing  for  man's  guidance  the  correct  ultimate  aim 
of  the  education  which  formed  him.  At  the  present  time, 
outside  the  Church,  each  educational  leader  in  the  midst 
of  darkness  and  confusion  is  seeking  to  determine  by  the 
light  of  his  own  unaided  intelligence  the  ultimate  aim  which 
should  control  the  educative  process. 

Translating  the  language  of  the  Church  into  the  lan- 
guage of  modern  educational  philosophy,  it  may  be  stated 
that  the  unchanging  aim  of  Christian  education  is,  and 
always  has  been,  to  put  the  pupil  into  possession  of  a  body 
of  truth  derived  from  nature  and  from  divine  revelation, 
from  the  concrete  work  of  man's  hand,  and  from  the  content 
of  human  speech,  in  order  to  bring  his  conduct  into  conformity 
with  Christian  ideals  and  with  the  standards  of  the  civilization 
of  his  day. 

To  prevent  misunderstandings,  it  may  be  well  to  examine 
a  little  more  closely  some  of  the  things  implied  in  this 
formulation  of  the  ultimate  aim  of  Christian  education. 
At  the  outset,  it  may  be  well  to  call  attention  to  some 
of  the  things  which  it  does  not  imply. 

It  is  quite  true  that  Christian  education  aims  at  bringing 
human  intelligence  under  the  control  of  divine  revelation 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

and  at  bringing  man's  animal  instincts  under  the  control 
of  human  intelligence.  But  in  this  process  human 
intelligence  is  not  impaired,  nor  are  its  scope  and  freedom 
lessened  by  the  controlling  truths  which  are  imparted  to 
it  on  divine  authority.  On  the  contrary,  revealed  truth 
imparts  security,  greater  keenness  and  a  wider  range  to 
human  vision.  In  like  manner,  the  subordinating  of 
man's  instincts  to  his  intelligence  does  not  imply  the 
destruction  or  the  suppression  of  instincts  or  the  lessening 
of  their  importance  in  human  life.  Intelligence  only 
removes  the  rigid  limitation  of  instincts.  It  lifts  up  the 
substance  of  the  instinct  and  makes  it  function  more 
vigorously  and  freely  on  a  wider  plane.  In  each  case,  the 
higher  faculty  perfects  the  lower  by  lifting  it  to  a  higher 
plane,  removing  narrow  limitations  and  changing  the 
direction  of  the  activity  so  as  to  conform  with  higher 
standards  and  to  attain  to  more  serviceable  adjustments. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  in  the  definition  of  the  ultimate 
aim  of  Christian  education  given  above,  stress  is  laid  on 
the  fact  that  the  food  for  man's  conscious  life  must  be 
derived  from  the  four  sources  indicated.  Revelation 
alone  will  not  suffice;  divine  faith  always  presupposes 
human  intelligence  which  it  is  designed  to  assist  and  to 
develop.  Supernatural  law  always  presupposes  and 
implies  natural  law;  hence,  truths  derived  from  nature 
are  presupposed  by  the  truths  made  known  to  man 
through  revelation.  In  fact,  the  most  conspicuous  feature 
of  our  Lord's  teaching  may  be  found  in  this:  that  He 
always  sought  to  lead  His  disciples  into  an  understanding 
of  the  truths  of  the  supernatural  life  through  their  under- 
standing of  natural  truths.  We  are  told  that  "All  these 
things  Jesus  spoke  in  parables  to  the  multitudes:  and 
without  parables  He  did  not  speak  to  them.  That  it 


THE  ULTIMATE  AIM  OF  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION       173 

might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet  say- 
ing: /  will  open  my  mouth  in  parables,  I  wul  utter  things 
hidden  from  the  foundation  of  the  world."1  Now  the  basis 
of  the  parable  is  always  natural  truth  which  is  lifted 
up  in  the  conclusion  of  the  parable  to  a  higher  plane 
and  made  the  means  of  giving  the  intellect  a  vital  grasp 
of  that  which,  without  the  aid  of  a  higher  authority,  it 
would  be  unable  to  reach  of  itself,  which  had  remained 
"hidden  from  the  foundation  of  the  world."  It  is  not 
natural  truth,  therefore,  that  is  taken  away  from  the 
human  intellect  by  divine  revelation,  it  is  the  limitations 
to  the  scope  of  human  intellect  that  are  removed  or 
pushed  out  into  wider  fields  by  this  divine  agency.  In  a 
word,  revelation  removes  defects  not  perfections  from  the 
human  mind. 

Our  Lord,  in  His  teachings,  did  not  fail  to  make  clear 
the  fact  that  a  similar  relation  should  exist  between 
instinct  and  human  intelligence.  He  frequently  implies 
the  validity  and  value  of  instinct  as  the  basis  of  His 
parable.  As  for  example:  "Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  thou 
that  killest  the  prophets,  and  stonest  them  that  are  sent 
unto  thee,  how  often  would  I  have  gathered  together 
thy  children,  as  the  hen  doth  gather  her  chickens  under 
her  wings,  and  thou  wouldst  not?"2  Or  again:  "What 
man  is  there  among  you,  of  whom  if  his  son  shall  ask 
bread,  will  he  reach  him  a  stone?  Or  if  he  shall  ask  him 
for  a  fish,  will  he  reach  him  a  serpent?  If  you  then  being 
evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  to  your  children:  how 
much  more  will  your  Father  Who  is  in  heaven,  give  good 
things  to  them  that  ask  Him?"3 


1  Matt,  xiii,  34-35. 
1  Matt,  xxiii.  87. 
1  Matt.  vii.  9-11. 


174  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

It  should  be  noted  that  in  the  Christian  aim  of  educa- 
tion the  imparting  of  knowledge  is  never  the  end. 
Knowledge  must  be  imparted  so  that  it  may  nourish  the 
conscious  life  of  the  pupil  and  this  is  sought  to  the  further 
end  of  securing  desirable  conduct.  The  ultimate  aim, 
therefore,  is  to  secure  adequate  adjustment  of  the  pupil 
to  Christian  ideals  of  life  and  to  the  standards  of  the 
civilization  of  the  day.  "Render  therefore  to  Caesar  the 
things  that  are  Caesar's:  and  to  God  the  things  that  are 
God's."1 

Perhaps  the  most  important  difference  to  be  observed 
between  the  aim  of  Christian  education,  as  set  forth  in 
these  pages,  and  the  aims  of  education  too  frequently 
defended  in  current  educational  philosophy  is  to  be  found 
in  the  function  of  the  principle  of  authority  which  it 
implies. 

Man's  animal  instincts,  of  themselves,  can  never  lift 
man  above  the  plane  of  mere  animal  nature.  If  his 
spirit  is  to  be  redeemed  from  the  bonds  of  the  flesh,  this 
redemption  must  come  to  him  from  without  and  it  can 
come  to  him  only  through  authority.  Furthermore,  if 
man,  the  intelligent  and  rational  animal,  is  to  be  lifted 
up  into  divine  companionship,  by  the  possession  of 
supernatural  truth,  chis  can  only  be  accomplished  through 
an  authority  which  is  above  the  utmost  limits  of  the  powers 
of  man's  merely  natural  intelligence,  whether  we  regard 
"intelligence"  as  the  possession  of  the  individual  or  as 
held  in  solidarity  by  the  race.  The  use  of  authority, 
however,  in  bringing  about  this  two-fold  transformation, 
is  essentially  transitory.  What  is  accepted  on  authority 
may,  and  should,  in  due  course  of  time,  be  accepted  by 
the  intellect  for  its  own  sake.  Thus,  as  the  mind  grows  in 

*  Luke  xx.  25. 


THE  ULTIMATE  AIM  OF  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION       175 

power,  authority  disappears  in  the  light  of  intrinsic 
evidence.  In  the  progress  of  the  individual,  as  in  the 
progress  of  the  race,  this  principle  has  never  ceased  to  be 
operative.  St.  Augustine's  phrase,  "Credo  ut  intettigam" 
— I  believe  in  order  that  I  may  understand — is  as  applic- 
able to  the  man  as  to  the  child.  It  is  as  true  in  the  natural 
order  of  truth  as  in  the  supernatural.  Always  faith  ceases 
in  vision  and  man  attains  to  no  vision  which  has  not 
unfolded  from  a  germ  of  faith:  "We  see  now  through  a 
glass  in  a  dark  manner;  but  then  face  to  face.  Now  I 
know  in  part;  but  then  I  shall  know  even  as  I  am  known."1 

Man  has  attained  the  high  place  which  he  holds  in  the 
scale  of  animal  life  precisely  because  his  offspring,  from 
the  time  of  its  conception,  is  not  left  to  find  its  own  way, 
as  are  the  offspring  of  the  sea  urchin  and  of  other  lowly 
forms  of  life,  but  begins  its  career  in  total  dependence 
upon  its  parents  and  grows,  little  by  little,  toward  complete 
independence.  This  drift  towards  independence,  however, 
does  not  begin  until  physical  development  has  practically 
reached  its  completion  and  growth  has  been  secured  in 
goodly  measure. 

In  the  development  of  its  conscious  life,  however,  the 
human  infant  begins  in  a  many-sided  dependence  upon  its 
parents  and  upon  the  people  of  its  environment  and  grad- 
ually works  its  way  from  the  acceptance  of  values  on  mere 
authority  to  then*  acceptance  through  experience  and 
through  the  light  of  its  own  intelligence.  "It  is  so 
whether  it  is  so  or  not  because  mother  says  so,'*  is  a 
perfectly  natural  attitude  of  the  infant  mind.  Instinct 
moves  the  child  to  action,  but  the  child  has  no  light  in 
which  to  discern  the  actions  which  are  most  profitable 
and  which  may  lead  to  the  higher  levels  of  life.  The 

1 1  Cor.  xiii.  12. 


176  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

selection  of  these  experiences,  if  it  is  to  be  wisely  made, 
must  be  determined  from  without  and  it  can  be  determined 
only  through  the  principle  of  authority,  which  is  thus' 
seen  to  be  fundamental  in  the  educative  process,  since 
through  it  alone  may  the  child's  intelligence  be  developed, 
through  it  alone  may  the  flesh  be  brought  into  subjection 
to  the  spirit,  through  it  alone  may  man  be  Uf  ted  up  into 
conformity  with  the  demands  of  the  supernatural  life. 

The  human  infant,  like  the  young  of  all  the  higher 
animals,  begins  its  conscious  life  under  the  complete  con- 
trol of  instinct.  It  is  the  purpose  of  education,  in  the 
widest  acceptation  of  that  term,  to  substitute  for  instinct 
the  control  of  intellect  and  free  will  so  as  to  secure  action 
in  conformity  to  the  laws  of  nature  and  to  the  dictates  of 
divine  will.  This  general  purpose  must,  of  course,  deter- 
mine many  of  the  secondary  aims  of  education  as  well  as 
the  methods  to  be  employed  at  every  stage  of  the  educative 
process. 

It  is  impossible  to  build  up  this  new  control  of  life  as 
a  thing  distinct  and  apart  from  the  instincts  of  the  infant. 
Vital  continuity  must  be  maintained;  all  the  positive  force 
of  the  instinct  must  be  retained  and  increased  daily,  even 
when  the  direction  of  the  instinct's  activity  should  be 
changed  and  when  the  instinct  may  need  to  be  profoundly 
modified  in  many  ways.  That  we  cannot  build  up  within 
the  conscious  life  of  the  child  an  effective  control  of  con- 
duct into  which  the  vitalizing  sap  of  instinct  does  not 
flow,  cannot  be  too  strongly  insisted  upon.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  neither  can  we  insist  too  strongly  upon  the 
truth  that  native  instincts,  no  matter  how  highly  culti- 
vated, or  how  fully  developed,  can  never  of  themselves 
lead  to  those  adjustments  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of 
civilized  society.  You  may  dig  around  the  wild  crab 


THE  ULTIMATE  AIM  OF  CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION        177 

apple  tree  and  cultivate  it  as  you  will,  its  fruit  will  still 
be  the  wild  crab  apple.  If  we  would  have  it  bring  forth 
such  fruitage  of  apples  or  pears  as  we  may  desire,  we  must 
engraft  upon  the  native  stem  a  branch  from  the  apple 
or  the  pear  tree.  Similarly,  we  may  engraft  rational 
control  upon  native  instincts  by  leading  the  child,  through 
the  right  use  of  authority,  into  such  experiences  as  will 
secure  the  desired  modifications  of  his  instinctive  ten- 
dencies. 

In  like  manner,  the  teacher  of  religion  must  ever  seek 
to  establish  vital  continuity  between  the  powers  of  the 
natural  man  and  the  supernatural  virtues  which  he  would 
inculcate  through  divine  authority.  This  vital  continuity 
between  natural  and  supernatural  life  was  constantly 
insisted  upon  by  the  Master:  "Abide  in  Me  and  I  in  you. 
As  the  branch  cannot  bear  fruit  of  itself,  unless  it  abide 
in  the  vine,  so  neither  can  you,  unless  you  abide  in  Me. 
I  am  the  vine;  you  are  the  branches:  he  that  abideth  in 
Me,  and  I  hi  him,  the  same  beareth  much  fruit:  for  without 
Me  you  can  do  nothing."1 

This  doctrine,  as  was  to  be  expected,  continued  to  be 
enforced  by  the  Apostles  and  by  the  Christian  Church. 
Even  the  same  metaphor  was  frequently  retained. 
"Wherefore  casting  away  all  uncleanness,  and  abundance 
of  naughtiness,  with  meekness  receive  the  engrafted  word, 
which  is  able  to  save  your  souls."2  And  "Paul  standing 
in  the  midst  of  the  Areopagus,  said:  Ye  men  of  Athens, 
I  perceive  that  in  all  things  you  are  too  superstitious. 
For  passing  by,  and  seeing  your  idols,  I  found  an  altar 
also,  on  which  was  written :  To  the  unknown  God.  What 
therefore  you  worship,  without  knowing  it,  that  I  preach 

1  John  xv,  4-5. 
2 1  Jamei  i,  21. 


178  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

to  you."1  Festivals  and  customs  which  the  Church 
found  deeply  rooted  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  to  whom  she 
brought  the  saving  message  of  the  Gospel,  she  retained  and 
sanctified,  making  what  was  blind  superstition  in  its 
native  form  serve  to  lead  up  to  light  and  truth  and  grace. 
In  laying  the  foundation  of  the  child's  education  in  trans- 
formed native  instincts,  we  are,  therefore,  doing  nothing 
more  nor  less  than  following  consistently  the  leadership 
of  the  Church  in  her  educational  work. 

For  certain  souls  that  dwell  much  in  the  contemplation 
of  supernatural  truths,  it  may  be  necessary  to  insist  that 
human  instincts  of  themselves  are  not  evil.  They  lead 
to  evil  conduct  only  when  left  to  themselves  and  when 
denied  the  direction  which  should  be  supplied  to  them  by 
divine  authority  and  by  the  experience  and  wisdom  of 
the  race.  It  should  be  noted  in  this  connection  that  the 
less  completely  developed  along  its  native  line  an  instinct 
is,  the  more  readily  it  may  be  transformed  through  the 
formation  of  overlying  habits  into  the  adjustment 
demanded  by  the  conditions  of  Christian  life. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  educative  process,  we  find  the 
human  infant's  attitude  towards  his  parents  characterized 
by  an  instinctive  dependence  which  is  at  least  five-fold: 
he  depends  on  his  parents  for  love,  for  nourishment,  for 
protection  against  danger,  for  remedy  in  disaster  and  for 
the  models  of  his  imitative  activity.  These  five  instincts 
are  a  part  of  the  child's  physical  inheritance;  he  shares 
them  with  the  young  of  many  of  the  higher  animals.  In 
human  life,  on  the  contrary,  the  educative  process  seeks 
to  preserve  and  strengthen  the  vitality  of  these  instincts 
by  transforming  them  into  adjustments  of  the  highest 
value  for  the  conduct  of  adult  human  life. 


1  Acts  xvii.  22-23. 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  179 

The  changes  in  the  five  instincts  of  dependence,  enum- 
erated above,  which  Christian  education  seeks  to  achieve, 
are  two-fold:  the  dependence  must  be  lifted  from 
dependence  upon  earthly  parents  to  dependence  upon  the 
Heavenly  Father,  and  the  selfishness  of  the  instinct  must 
be  transformed  into  unselfishness.  The  child  must  be 
taught  to  find  his  joy  in  loving  rather  than  in  being  loved, 
in  giving  food  to  the  hungry  rather  than  in  eating  the 
bread  of  idleness,  in  giving  protection  to  the  weak  instead 
of  seeking  it  as  a  coward  seeks  safety.  He  must  learn  to 
look  upon  his  fellow  man  as  his  brother  and  to  find  his  joy 
in  sharing  with  him  his  treasures,  whether  physical  or 
spiritual. 

The  importance  which  Christ  attached  to  the  pres- 
ervation and  transformation  of  these  five  instincts  of 
dependence,  may  be  seen  from  the  fundamental  role  which 
he  assigns  to  them  after  they  are  thus  transformed: 
"Thus,  therefore,  shall  you  pray:  Our  Father  Who  art  in 
heaven,  etc."  He  would  have  us  count  with  the  same 
certainty  on  our  Heavenly  Father's  love  that  moves  the 
child  to  turn  to  his  parents  for  the  same  boon.  And  a 
like  certainty  should  animate  us  as  we  petition  our 
Heavenly  Father  for  daily  bread,  or  to  be  kept  out  of 
danger  and  temptation,  or  to  be  delivered  from  the  evils 
that  may  have  overtaken  us.  And  we  should  strive  un- 
ceasingly to  respond  to  the  Master's  command  "Be  ye 
perfect  as  your  Heavenly  Father  is  perfect."  The  Lord's 
Prayer  explicitly  calls  for  the  lifting  up  of  our  dependence 
upon  earthly  parents  into  dependence  upon  our  Heavenly 
Father,  and  it  calls  hi  like  manner  for  the  transformation 
of  each  of  the  five  instincts  so  that,  from  being  purely 
selfish,  they  may  become  wholly  unselfish  and  after  this 
transformation  has  been  wrought  in  them,  they  become 


180  PHILOSOPHY  OF   EDUCATION 

the  warp  of  the  highest  spirituality  that  has  ever  been 
revealed  to  man.  Hence,  in  the  parable  of  the  sanctions, 
the  award  is  based  on  the  functioning  of  these  transformed 
instincts.  "Come,  ye  blessed  of  My  Father,  possess  you 
the  kingdom  prepared  for  you  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world.  For  I  was  hungry,  and  you  gave  me  to  eat;  1 
was  thirsty,  and  you  gave  me  to  drink;  I  was  a  stranger, 
and  you  took  me  in:  naked,  and  you  covered  me:  sick,  and 
you  visited  me:  I  was  in  prison,  and  you  came  to  me."1 

Christian  education,  therefore,  aims  at  transforming 
native  instincts  while  preserving  and  enlarging  their 
powers.  It  aims  at  bringing  the  flesh  under  the  control 
of  the  spirit.  It  draws  upon  the  experience  and  the 
wisdom  of  the  race,  upon  divine  revelation  and  upon  the 
power  of  divine  grace  in  order  that  it  may  bring  the  con- 
duct of  the  individual  into  conformity  with  Christian 
ideals  and  with  the  standards  of  the  civilization  of  the 
day.  It  aims  at  the  development  of  the  whole  man,  at 
the  preservation  of  unity  and  continuity  in  his  conscious 
life;  it  aims  at  transforming  man's  native  egoism  to  altru- 
ism; at  developing  the  social  side  of  his  nature  to  such  an 
extent  that  he  may  regard  all  men  as  his  brothers,  sharing 
with  them  the  common  Fatherhood  of  God.  In  one  word, 
it  aims  at  transforming  a  child  of  the  flesh  into  a  child  of 
God. 

While  accepting  the  ultimate  aim  of  Christian  education 
as  herein  set  forth,  it  is  necessary,  in  order  to  attain  effici- 
ency in  his  work,  that  the  teacher  should  attempt  to 
formulate  for  himself  a  series  of  concrete  and  definite 
secondary  aims  which  in  then*  turn  may  be  regarded  as 
means  to  the  attainment  of  the  ultimate  aim  which  should 
give  final  direction  to  all  his  efforts. 

1  Matt.  xxv.  34-36 


CHAPTER  XI 
PHYSICAL  EDUCATION 

The  preservation  of  the  child's  health  and  the  develop- 
ment of  his  physical  organism  must  be  provided  for  by  the 
educative  agencies  which  undertake  to  control  his  con- 
duct and  to  shape  his  destiny,  since  his  instinctive  equip- 
ment is  wholly  inadequate  to  the  attainment  of  those 
ends  under  the  conditions  prevailing  in  civilized  life. 

Man's  instincts,  while  numerous,  are  so  largely  atro- 
phied, or  incomplete,  that  they  would  not  suffice  to  sustain 
life  even  under  the  most  primitive  conditions  of  savagery. 
To  the  human  infant,  therefore,  education  is,  under  all 
conditions,  not  merely  an  added  perfection,  but  an  element 
essential  to  the  preservation  and  continuance  of  life. 
This  truth  was  pointed  out  long  since  by  Professor  Fiske1 
and  it  has  been  accepted  in  current  educational  literature. 

Physical  heredity  renders  man's  physical  and  intellectual 
development  possible,  but  of  itself  it  is  not  sufficient  to 
sustain  either.  It  demands,  as  its  complement,  social 
heredity,  which  reaches  the  individual  only  through  educa- 
tion. Moreover,  the  further  man  departs  from  savage 
ways,  the  further  he  enters  into  the  complexities  of  civilized 
life,  the  less  adequate  becomes  his  instinctive  equipment, 
and  the  more  necessary  to  him  is  that  guidance  which 
comes  to  him  through  the  channels  of  authority  from  the 
garnered  wisdom  of  the  race. 

It  is  not  the  function  of  education  to  search  man's  past 
in  order  to  recover  therefrom  the  pattern  of  life  and  con- 
duct which  was  lost  by  his  atrophying  instincts.  On  the 
contrary,  the  whole  weight  of  evidence  from  biological 

1  Cosmic  Phil.,  ii.  342,  869. 

181 


182  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

science  goes  to  show  that  man's  instincts  were  atrophied 
precisely  because  they  ceased  to  be  effective  and  that  they 
were  gradually  replaced  by  something  better.  His  grow- 
ing intelligence  enabled  primitive  man  to  substitute 
habits  formed  in  the  light  of  individual  experience  and  of 
the  experience  of  the  race  for  instinctive  determinations 
of  conduct,  which  were  designed  by  nature  to  meet  the 
conditions  of  a  relatively  static  environment. 

As  man  congregates  in  cities  and  builds  up  the  institu- 
tions of  civilized  life,  he  modules  his  environment  so  pro- 
foundly that  not  only  native  instincts  cease  to  be  ser- 
viceable in  the  control  of  his  conduct,  but  individual 
experience  becomes  increasingly  inadequate,  and,  if  he  is 
to  survive,  he  must  learn  to  control  his  conduct,  even  in 
those  matters  which  concern  his  health  and  his  physical 
development,  by  a  larger  wisdom  and  a  clearer  light  than 
that  which  arises  from  individual  experience.  He  must 
accept  on  authority  much  that  he  will  not  even  be  able  to 
verify  for  himself  if  he  is  to  preserve  his  own  health  and 
avoid  endangering  the  health  of  others  with  whom  he  is 
associated. 

It  is,  of  course,  the  business  of  education  to  lead  the 
child  into  an  understanding  of  the  laws  of  health,  employ- 
ing to  the  best  advantage  the  child's  individual 
experience,  but  it  is  also  the  business  of  education  to  teach 
the  child  to  obey  the  laws  and  regulations  which  are  pro- 
mulgated for  the  preservation  of  individual  and  of  public 
health,  whether  the  individual  is  moved  thereto  by  an 
adequate  understanding  of  the  scientific  data  back  of 
these  laws,  or  not. 

The  contrast  here  involved  is  not  only  that  between 
the  conditions  of  animal  life  and  the  conditions  of  human 
life,  but  between  the  conditions  of  primitive  human  life 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  183 

and  the  conditions  that  surround  civilized  man.  Among 
primitive  peoples  we  find  instincts  supplemented  by 
habits  which  are  formed  in  the  young  through  rigid 
customs  handed  down  from  generation  to  generation. 
These  primitive  customs  are  sometimes  as  difficult  to 
replace  or  to  modify  as  the  instincts  of  the  individual. 
As  man  passes  into  a  civilized  mode  of  life,  these  customs, 
no  less  than  native  instincts,  must  be  modified  or  replaced 
by  habits  better  suited  to  further  social  ends.  Many  of 
these  habits  are  at  the  same  time  calculated  to  preserve 
health  and  to  secure  individual  development. 

"Thus  the  habits  of  correct  posture,  graceful  carriage, 
exercise,  cleanliness,  moderation,  are  ultimately  hygienic 
habits,  and  the  ideals  through  which  they  are  generalized 
are  hygienic  ideals, — beauty,  grace,  health,  chastity, 
temperance,  love  of  outdoor  life.  These  hygienic  habits 
and  ideals  might  be  called  the  balance  wheels  of  civiliza- 
tion; it  is  through  their  operation  that  man  has  so  far 
escaped  annihilation  at  the  hands  of  the  very  agencies 
that  have  lifted  him  up."1 

Education,  in  the  sense  in  which  we  have  been  using  the 
term,  is  much  wider  in  its  implications  than  the  activities 
of  the  schoolroom.  In  this  wider  sense,  all  life  is  an  edu- 
cative process,  but  learning  therein  is  incidental  rather  than 
intentional.  To  teach,  however,  is  the  express  purpose 
of  the  school,  and  experience  is  there  used  primarily  for  its 
teaching  power.  In  this  same  sense  the  home  is  the  first 
school.  There  the  infant  is  taught,  and  there  the  basis 
should  be  laid  of  those  physical  habits  of  cleanliness, 
posture,  exercise,  and  moderation.  The  Church  is  also 
engaged  in  teaching  these  things  as  a  part  of  its  mission 
and  in  using  the  experiences  of  life  to  bring  home  to  man 

lBagley,  Education  Process.  New  York,  1906,  p.  346. 


184  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

lessons  of  a  higher  wisdom.  But  these  agencies  do  not  re- 
move from  the  school  the  serious  and  fundamental  obliga- 
tion of  continuing  and  perfecting  the  child's  physical 
education. 

This  truth  is  coming  to  be  recognized  more  clearly 
day  by  day.  "There  is  no  sterner  duty  laid  upon  the 
teacher,"  says  Dr.  Bagley,  "than  the  development  of  these 
habits  and  ideals.  A  large  public  school  is  a  fertile  ground 
for  implanting  the  seeds  of  disease  and  vice.  The  mind  of 
the  child  at  any  time  after  the  eighth  year  is  predisposed 
to  impulses  that  are  vulgar  and  degrading.  Some  of 
these  reactions  may  be  'natural'  enough:  they  are  not 
always  to  be  looked  upon  as  abnormalities  or  perversions; 
but  under  the  conditions  of  modern  life  they  are  none  the 
less  disastrous,  and  it  is  precisely  at  this  point  that  some 
form  of  education  or  external  guidance  becomes  essential 
to  the  salvation  of  the  race.  If  the  dictum,  'Follow 
nature,'  is  ever  fallacious,  it  certainly  is  here,  for  here 
nature  is  working  at  cross  purposes,  pitting  instincts  and 
impulses  so  evenly  against  one  another  that  the  composi- 
tion of  forces,  if  left  to  the  operation  of  natural  law,  could 
hardly  fail  to  equal  zero  in  practically  every  case. 

"In  dealing  with  children  between  the  ages  of  eight  and 
twelve  there  is  little  room  for  freedom  or  liberty.  Ceaseless 
vigilance  is  here  the  price  of  success,  and  this  vigilance 
must  extend  to  every  nook  and  cranny  of  the  child's 
nature.  Uncleanliness  of  all  sorts  grows  with  the  growth. 
Filth  breeds  filth,  both  mentally  and  materially.  The 
germs  must  be  nipped  in  the  bud  if  infection  is  to  be 
prevented.  The  general  treatment  must  be  aseptic,  the 
specific  treatment  antiseptic 

"In  dealing  with  adolescence,  .  .  .  specific  methods 
must  be  employed,  differing  radically  from  those  used 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  185 

in  the  pre-adolescent  period.  Arbitrary  rulings  and 
summary  punishments  must  give  place  to  reason;  and  the 
hygienic  habits  that  have  been  formed  largely  by  mechan- 
ical processes  in  the  earlier  years  must  now  be  generalized 
and  justified  on  the  basis  of  ideals."1 

Dr.  Bagley  is  taking  full  account  of  the  net  results  of 
psychological  investigation  and  of  the  every-day  experience 
of  the  schoolroom  when  he  insists,  as  he  does  here,  that 
it  is  the  business  of  the  school  to  form  many  habits  in  the 
young  which  are  essential  for  the  well-being  of  physical 
life,  and  which  not  only  fail  to  derive  their  impulse  and 
their  direction  from  inherited  instincts,  but  which,  in 
their  formation,  demand  a  wider  knowledge  and  a  clearer 
insight  into  the  uses  of  life  than  is  possible  to  the  inex- 
perienced child  in  the  pre-adolescent  period.  It  is  the 
function  of  authority  to  guide  the  child  in  the  formation  of 
these  habits  no  less  than  in  the  formation  of  habits  that 
pertain  to  his  higher  nature.  Nor  can  we  suddenly  dis- 
miss authority  at  the  advent  of  puberty.  Indeed,  we 
should  appeal  to  the  child's  intelligence  and  to  his  experi- 
ence from  his  earliest  years,  but  this  appeal  at  every  stage 
of  the  process  must  be  reinforced  by  authority. 

In  adolescence,  it  is  true,  the  individual  comes 
strongly  into  the  foreground.  Nature  is  here  preparing 
him  for  independence,  and  the  great  uprush  of  emotion 
and  passion  must  be  taken  into  account  by  the  school. 
But  after  every  concession  is  made  that  should  be  made  to 
the  growing  independence  of  youth,  it  is  still  a  fact  abund- 
antly proven  by  every-day  experience  that  unless  the 
youth  is  accustomed  to  act  under  authority  and  to  restrain 
and  govern  his  impulses  and  his  passions  in  view  of  an 
objective  law  whose  validity  his  reason  accepts,  there  is 

I0p.  tit.,  p.  346  ff. 


186  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

little  likelihood  that  he  will  be  preserved  and  grow  into 
worthy  citizenship.  The  weakening  of  authority  over 
our  young  people  and  the  lessening  of  its  effect  upon  their 
conduct  is  responsible  for  a  large  portion  of  the  disease,  the 
vice,  and  the  misery  of  modern  life  which  trace  their  imme- 
diate source  to  perverted  sex  instinct. 

In  the  functioning  of  authority  in  forming  habits  neces- 
sary for  the  physical  well-being  of  the  individual,  we  have 
an  illustration  of  race  life  controlling  and  uplifting  indi- 
vidual life.  This  is,  in  fact,  the  foundation  of  man's 
superiority  over  his  lowlier  fellow  creatures.  The  experi- 
ence of  the  race  is  brought  into  prominence  in  man's 
education.  It  pushes  aside  not  only  the  individual's 
instincts  which  are  wholly  inadequate,  but  it  sets  aside 
with  almost  equal  vigor  individual  experience. 

The  great  fundamental  habits  on  which  the  whole  super- 
structure of  individual  life  rests  must,  in  man's  case  at 
least,  be  formed  not  in  the  meager  light  of  the  individual's 
restricted  experience,  but  in  the  light  of  the  experience 
of  the  race.  This  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  the 
child  must  be  taught  to  act  in  accordance  with  the  dictates 
of  authority  and  then  be  led  to  discover  the  reasonable- 
ness and  justification  of  the  authority. 

When  we  pass  from  the  unmstructed  child  to  the  oppo- 
site frontiers  of  human  life,  we  find  this  principle  still 
operative.  St.  Paul  speaks  of  it  as  "faith  ceasing  in 
vision,"  and  St.  Augustine  embodies  it  in  his  memorable 
phrase:  "Credo  ut  intelligam" — I  believe  in  order  that 
I  may  understand — and  the  Church  has  ever  based  her 
moral  precepts  on  the  authority  of  God. 

In  the  absence  of  divine  authority  as  an  available 
resource,  we  come  upon  the  most  serious  aspect  of  the 
educational  work  undertaken  by  our  public  school  system. 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  187 

When  the  authority  of  God  is  banished  from  the  field, 
the  child  is  likely  to  find  nothing  but  brute  force  or  the 
will  of  the  majority  as  the  foundation  of  the  authority 
which  seeks  to  control  his  actions.  Under  these  circum- 
stances it  is  not  surprising  that  he  lacks  reverence  for 
authority  and  seeks  ways  to  escape  its  exactions. 

During  the  first  five  or  six  years  of  the  child's  life,  the 
home  undertakes  to  make  the  necessary  adjustments. 
The  child's  instincts,  rudimentary  as  they  are,  cry  out  for 
simple  food,  for  sunlight  and  air  and  the  free  movements 
of  outdoor  life.  The  home  must  accustom  him  to  cooked 
foods,  to  the  drinking  of  warm  liquids,  to  the  use  of 
artificial  shelter  and  protection,  to  the  necessity  of  con- 
centrating his  energy  and  of  constantly  inhibiting  normal 
impulses.  In  these  things  the  school  must  play  its  part, 
but  the  beginning  must  be  made  in  the  home  and  the 
home  should  cooperate  with  the  school  to  the  attainment 
of  these  ends  throughout  the  whole  educative  process. 

The  adjustments  called  for  are  difficult  and  will  tax  the 
resources  of  all  available  educative  agencies.  "The  very 
virtues  of  civilization,"  says  Dr.  Bagley,  "impose  upon 
everyone  who  lives  the  social  life  the  paradoxical  obligation 
to  break  nature's  laws.  How  to  get  the  most  out  of  life 
with  the  least  suffering,  how  to  do  the  best  work  with  the 
least  drain,  how  to  be  human  and  civilized  and  still  be  a 
healthy  animal,  are  problems  that  can  only  approximate 
solution  through  compromise.  When  the  best  life 
entails  no  physical  suffering,  when  the  best  work  can  be 
done  without  danger  of  nervous  breakdown,  when  civiliza- 
tion and  culture  fail  to  demand  some  violation  of  primitive 
laws,  man  will  have  developed  into  a  being  that  will  have 
little  bodily  resemblance  to  his  present  self."1 

'Bagley,  op.  cit.,  p.  336. 


188  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

From  this  statement  of  the  case,  which  it  will  be  ad- 
mitted is  fairly  accurate,  the  difficulty  of  the  task  under- 
taken by  the  school  must  be  apparent.  The  unavoidable 
conditions  of  school  life  add  still  further  to  the  difficulty. 
The  child  is  accustomed  at  home  to  a  freer  life  and  in  the 
simple  industrial  homes  of  the  past  generation  he  was  in 
close  touch  with  nature,  where  he  found  abundant  health- 
ful exercise  that,  if  not  always  agreeable,  was  at  least 
useful.  His  share  in  the  labors  of  the  home  group  consti- 
tuted in  many  respects  a  valuable  transition  from  primi- 
tive to  civilized  life,  and  it  formed  a  basic  portion  of 
the  educative  process.  In  our  present  economic  condi- 
tions the  home  has  been  impoverished  for  the  child,  and 
the  many-sided  training  which  he  received  there  must  now 
be  given  in  the  school,  if  it  is  to  be  given  at  all. 

Whatever  tends  to  lessen  -the  violence  of  the  transition 
which  the  child's  physical  life  must  undergo  in  passing 
from  the  home  to  the  school  should  be  welcomed.  Chil- 
dren in  rural  schools  are  provided  for  in  this  respect. 
The  children's  gardens,  now  being  developed  in  many  of 
our  cities  in  connection  with  the  public  schools,  should 
prove  helpful,  not  only  to  the  physical  life  of  the  children, 
but  in  laying  the  foundation  through  sensory-motor 
training  of  the  children's  future  mental  and  moral  develop- 
ment, and  they  should  prove  particularly  serviceable  in 
connection  with  manual  training  and  vocational  education. 

For  the  best  results  in  childhood  days,  nature  calls  for 
play  rather  than  for  work.  The  outdoor  play  of  children 
tends  to  develop  the  larger  and  freer  bodily  movements. 
It  enlarges  the  lungs;  it  strengthens  the  heart;  it  pro- 
motes circulation;  it  gives  grace  and  suppleness  to  the 
figure;  it  provides  varied  activities  which  flow  from  native 
well-springs  of  interest;  and  it  thus  lays  the  foundation 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  189 

for  finer  adjustments  and  for  a  higher  development  of  the 
whole  being;  and  above  all  it  tends  to  put  the  child  in  a 
condition  to  sustain  some  of  the  inevitable  strains  which 
he  will  meet  in  the  schoolroom.  The  work  begun  in  the 
play  of  childhood  should  be  completed  by  the  games  and 
athletic  sports  which  find  legitimate  place  in  the  latter 
portion  of  the  educative  process  not  only  as  means  of 
perfecting  physical  development  but  as  valuable  means  of 
forming  character  and  developing  necessary  social  quali- 
ties. 

Play  should  not  remain  outside  the  school,  at  least  where 
little  children  are  concerned.  Froebel  through  his  kinder- 
garten and  Montessori  through  her  House  of  Childhood 
have  helped  to  bring,  home  to  us  this  truth.  We  may  not 
find  either  of  these  methods  available  in  our  primary 
classrooms  but  something  of  their  spirit  should  enter  into 
the  work  and  help  to  relieve  the  children  from  rigid  atti- 
tudes and  long  periods  of  quiet. 

We  are  slowly  learning,  through  the  psychology  of 
childhood,  that  a  child  is  capable  of  learning  little  except 
through  his  actions.  Hence,  the  ideal  primary  room  is  a 
scene  of  busy  activity  instead  of  a  place  where  rows  of 
silent  little  children  sit  for  long  periods  poring  over  their 
A  B  C's  or  memorizing  their  multiplication  table.  The 
sand  table,  cutting  and  folding  of  paper,  modeling  in  clay, 
drawing,  painting  in  water  colors,  singing,  and  above  all, 
constant  dramatization  of  every  situation  studied — all 
these  things  are  tending  to  bring  our  primary  classroom 
nearer  to  the  children  and  to  render  it  more  effective  as 
an  educational  agency  in  supplying  the  place  of  the  in- 
dustrial home  of  the  past. 

To  meet  the  conditions  of  civilized  life,  it  is  necessary 
that  the  child  should  preserve  and  develop  his  health  and 


190  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

strength,  but  it  is  also  necessary  that  he  should  adjust  his 
physical  organism  to  the  strains  that  will  be  imposed 
upon  it,  and  this  adjustment  must  come  gradually.  The 
school  must  begin  the  task.  It  will  not  do,  therefore, 
simply  to  guide  the  child  hi  the  indulgence  of  his  native 
impulses  and  to  protect  him  from  all  that  is  wearing  and 
that  makes  demands  on  his  physical  life.  In  the  school 
the  child  must  learn  the  finer  adjustments  of  eye  and 
muscle.  The  eye  is  not  constructed  to  endure  the  strain 
occasioned  by  the  accurate  scrutiny  of  fine  details  at 
short  range  during  long  periods  at  a  stretch.  The  school, 
through  properly  graded  work,  must  develop  the  eye  and 
its  function  so  as  to  meet  these  demands  effectively.  In 
the  work  of  the  school  there  arise  unavoidable  demands 
for  active  attention  during  a  considerable  portion  of  each 
school  day.  This  in  turn  implies  the  conquest  of  im- 
pulse, frequent  inhibitions,  and  large  expenditures  of 
nerve  energy.  These  demands  the  school  should  face 
squarely  and  by  proper  gradation  of  exercise  and  proper 
methods  prepare  the  child  to  meet  the  demands  of  life 
which  are  not  unlike  those  enumerated  for  the  school. 

The  easiest  solution  of  many  of  the  difficulties  presented 
in  the  school  is  to  be  found  in  a  ready  yielding  to  the 
child's  humors  and  tendencies.  Permit  him  to  follow  his 
bent  without  interference — we  are  told.  Yield  wholly  to 
nature.  Such  a  procedure,  however,  constitutes  a  prac- 
tical abandonment  of  the  essential  work  of  education. 
Whether  or  not  such  a  procedure  is  to  be  permitted  in  a 
kindergarten  or  a  Montessori  House  of  Childhood,  it  is 
clearly  out  of  place  in  the  elementary  school.  To  permit 
the  child  to  follow  his  own  impulses  without  restraint, 
to  follow  his  own  tendencies  and  ideas  without  any 
guidance  from  authority,  to  allow  him  to  pass  through  the 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  191 

plastic  period  of  life  without  having  adjusted  himself  to 
objective  standards  of  authority,  and  without  having 
acquired  habits  of  obedience  to  the  laws  which  regulate 
human  conduct  in  civilized  society  constitutes  a  betrayal 
of  the  trust  reposed  in  the  school. 

The  first  task  which  the  school  is  called  upon  to  perform 
is  to  preserve  the  child's  health,  and  to  secure  his  normal 
physical  development  while  adjusting  his  conduct  to 
the  standards  of  the  civilization  of  the  day.  How  may 
these  divergent  aims  be  reconciled?  Much  has  been 
done  during  the  past  few  decades  towards  the  solution  of 
this  problem,  but  much  still  remains  to  be  achieved. 
The  advance  that  has  been  made  lies  chiefly  in  the  first 
part  of  the  problem,  viz,  the  preservation  of  the  child's 
health  and  the  securing  of  his  physical  development. 
Much  still  remains  to  be  done  in  the  direction  of 
adjusting  his  conduct  to  the  requirements  of  civilized  life. 

Owing  to  the  great  advance  of  medical  science  during 
the  last  few  decades,  many  of  the  old  time  dangers  to 
health  have  been  removed  from  our  schools.  To  prevent 
the  spread  of  contagious  disease,  the  common  drinking 
cup  has  been  banished  and  the  drinking  fountain  installed 
in  its  place.  Vaccination  and  quarantine  are  promptly 
resorted  to  whenever  occasion  demands.  The  germ- 
laden  dust  is  removed  from  the  school  by  vacuum  cleaners 
instead  of  being  redistributed  over  desks  and  furniture 
by  the  janitor's  broom.  Such  dangerous  and  uncleanly 
habits  as  expectoration  are  prohibited.  War  is  being 
waged  on  the  fly  and  the  mosquito.  Needless  strain  on 
the  eyes  is  being  removed  by  the  proper  lighting  of  the 
classrooms  and  the  proper  printing  of  text-books,  and  a 
supply  of  pure  air  is  procured  through  proper  ventilation, 
Efforts  are  made  to  maintain  the  proper  temperature. 


192  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

Strain  upon  the  nerves  of  the  children,  as  well  as  danger  to 
their  health,  has  been  mitigated  by  the  banishment  of  the 
unsanitary  slate  with  its  squeaking  pencil.  Furniture  is 
constructed  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  children  and  to 
secure  proper  posture.  Periods  of  concentrated  atten- 
tion are  shortened  and  interspersed  with  periods  of  out- 
door play  and  recreation  which  is  sometimes  being  wisely 
used  for  the  development,  not  only  of  the  child's  physical 
organism,  but  of  his  moral  nature. 

The  schools  have  not  remained  content  with  removing 
the  causes  which  menace  the  child's  health.  Persistent 
efforts  have  been  made  to  remedy  native  defects.  The 
children's  eyes  are  examined  and  when  found  defective  they 
are  fitted  with  glasses.  Adenoids  are  removed  to  permit  of 
proper  breathing.  Where  the  children  exhibit  weak  lungs 
or  a  tubercular  tendency,  open  air  schools  are  being  pro- 
vided. The  children  are  taught  sanitation  of  the  mouth 
and  proper  care  of  their  bodies. 

Finally,  the  nature  of  the  tasks  assigned  to  children  in 
the  school  are  undergoing  profound  alteration  with  a  view 
to  meeting  the  physical  and  mental  needs  of  the  children. 
Interest  is  appealed  to  more  extensively  than  heretofore, 
and  the  strain  of  voluntary  attention  is  lessened.  The 
needs  of  retarded  pupils  are  being  met  by  more  systematic 
training  of  the  senses  and  the  muscles.  The  demands  of 
the  child's  emotional  nature  are  leading  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  esthetic  sense,  in  the  decoration  of  the 
schoolroom,  in  the  illustration  and  printing  of  the  text- 
books and  in  the  teaching  of  drawing,  painting  and  music. 
All  this  is  as  it  should  be,  but  it  is  needful  that  we  should 
not  forget  that  man  is  a  rational  animal  and  that  these 
two  aspects  of  his  being  unfold  in  conjunction  with  each 
other  and  not  separately.  Physical  education  must  be 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  193 

undertaken  by  the  school,  but  from  the  very  beginning  of 
the  educative  process  it  must  be  remembered  that  organic 
development  is  also  the  basis  of  mental  development.  In 
all  that  is  done  for  the  child,  consideration  must  be  given 
both  to  his  mental  and  moral  nature  as  well  as  to  his 
physical  life.  The  preserving  of  the  proper  balance  here 
is  not  the  least  difficult  of  the  tasks  which  are  so  lightly 
assigned  to  the  teacher. 


CHAPTER  XII 
BALANCES  IN  DEVELOPMENT 

According  to  the  teaching  of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  the 
soul  and  body  unite  in  man  to  form  one  substance,  one 
nature,  one  source  of  action.  From  this  point  of  view 
it  is  not  my  soul  that  thinks;  it  is  not  my  feet  that  walk; 
it  is  I  who  think  and  I  who  walk. 

The  view  which  makes  the  body  a  mere  instrument  of 
the  soul  was  not  accepted  by  St.  Thomas  and  it  is  not 
prevalent  among  Catholic  philosophers.  Pious  exag- 
gerations which  refer  to  the  body  as  the  prison-house  of 
the  soul  should  not  be  regarded  as  sober  philosophy  and 
need  not  be  taken  into  account  in  the  philosophy  that 
concerns  itself  with  the  educative  process. 

It  is  true  that  the  immortality  of  the  soul  is  essential 
to  the  Catholic's  belief  in  a  hereafter  but  we  have  little 
means  of  knowing  the  nature  or  operations  of  the  soul 
after  its  separation  from  the  body.  St.  Thomas  found 
reason  for  believing  that  it  is  so  incomplete  as  to  be 
unable  to  acquire  new  truths  or  to  come  in  contact  with 
the  physical  world  except  by  miracle  until  it  shall  be  again 
united  with  the  body. 

Analogies  to  St.  Thomas'  view  of  the  relation  of  soul  to 
body  are  not  difficult  to  find.  Oxygen  and  hydrogen 
unite  to  form  water,  but  water  exhibits  none  of  the 
characteristic  qualities  or  actions  of  either  hydrogen  or 
oxygen.  We  are  not  dealing  in  the  school  with  the 
souls  of  children  nor  are  we  dealing  with  their  bodies. 
The  schoolroom  is  neither  a  morgue  nor  a  limbo  for 
disembodied  spirits.  It  is  a  place  where  we  are  confronted 

194 


BALANCES  IN  DEVELOPMENT  195 

with  living,  moving  children;  with  beings  possessed  of 
souls  and  bodies,  indeed,  but  possessing  these  two  elements 
of  then*  nature  in  a  solidarity  and  a  unity  which  can  be 
severed  only  by  death.  Whatever  divergency  may  exist 
in  the  views  of  psychologists  and  philosophers  concerning 
the  nature  of  spirit  and  the  nature  of  matter,  there  is 
practical  unanimity  among  them  in  the  belief  that  in  the 
present  life  of  man,  soul  and  body  are  inseparably  united 
and  must  be  dealt  with  as  a  unit  presenting  divergent 
aspects. 

The  processes  of  physical  development  and  of  mental 
development  should  not  be  confounded.  Physical  devel- 
opment in  the  human  being  has  practically  run  its  course 
during  embryonic  life  and  before  the  advent  of  conscious- 
ness. It  is  only  the  latest  stages  of  physical  development 
that  are  concomitant  with  mental  development.  More- 
over, the  process  of  mental  development  exhibits  many 
striking  differences  from  that  of  physical  development, 
but  however  widely  these  two  processes  may  differ  from 
each  other,  there  is  no  question  of  the  fact  that  mental 
development  in  the  child  depends  upon  and  is,  to  a  certain 
extent,  controlled  by  his  physical  development. 

The  close  interdependence  of  the  phenomena  of  mental 
and  physical  life  is  universally  recognized.  A  diminution 
of  the  volume  of  blood  in  the  brain,  or  an  increase  of 
pressure  on  the  brain,  suspends  consciousness.  A  lesion 
in  one  part  of  the  brain  results  in  paralysis  of  a  definite 
set  of  muscles;  lesion  in  another  part  paralyzes  sensation 
in  a  given  area;  the  rupture  of  a  blood  vessel  in  the 
convolution  of  Brocca  renders  speech  impossible;  dis- 
integration of  the  cortex  in  a  portion  of  the  temporal 
lobe  obliterates  all  memory  of  sound,  etc. 

Mental  development  rests  on  brain  development  and 


196  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

is,  in  a  measure,  determined  by  it.  With  the  rise  of 
intelligence  in  the  animal  series  there  is  found  a  corre- 
sponding increase  in  the  volume  and  complexity  of  the 
brain.  Indeed,  all  the  facts  in  the  case  point  to  cerebral 
development  as  the  indispensable  condition  and  the 
determining  factor  in  mental  development.  Whether 
mental  development  lags  behind  brain  development  or  not, 
it  is  certain  that  it  cannot  precede  it. 

One  of  the  functions  of  the  brain  is  to  supply  the  basis 
and  the  organs  for  mental  life,  but  this  is  only  one  of  its 
functions  and  apparently  one  of  its  latest  functions  when 
the  matter  is  viewed  from  a  phylogenetic  standpoint. 
The  cerebrum  is  the  dominant  portion  of  the  cerebro  spinal 
system  in  man  and  mammals  and  as  such  it  continues  to 
minister  to  all  the  needs  of  the  growing  organism.  It 
controls  the  q.uality  and  quantity  of  the  various  secretions; 
it  regulates  the  temperature  of  the  body;  it  governs  the 
respiration;  it  determines  the  heart  rate,  the  blood  pressure 
and  the  distribution  of  the  blood  supply;  it  controls  the 
manufacture  of  the  various  enzymes,  the  digestion  of 
food  and  the  elimination  of  waste  products,  and  it  presides 
over  the  nutrition  and  growth  of  all  parts  of  the  body. 
Receiving  through  its  afferent  nerves  the  results  of  the 
play  of  sensory  stimuli  from  the  end  organs  of  sense,  the 
brain  determines  the  appropriate  reactions  of  the  organism 
so  as  to  avoid  danger  and  to  pursue  the  things  that  are 
necessary  for  We. 

Conscious  phenomena  are  associated  in  man,  at  least, 
only  with  nerve  currents  in  the  cerebral  cortex  that  rise 
above  a  definite  tension.  Nerve  currents  of  low  tension 
suffice  for  all  the  purposes  of  organic  life:  they  suffice 
for  the  building  of  bone  and  muscle  and  nerve  no  less 
than  for  the  control  of  the  ordinary  functions  of  the 


BALANCES  IN  DEVELOPMENT  197 

organism.  Mental  life,  on  the  contrary,  demands  nerve 
currents  of  considerable  tension  in  the  cerebral  cortex 
for  even  the  production  of  those  diffuse  conscious  states 
which  may  be  spoken  of  as  the  lateral  field  of  conscious- 
ness in  contradistinction  to  the  area  of  high  tension  which 
always  underlies  effort  and  concentrated  attention.  It 
should  be  observed,  moreover,  that  the  mapping  out 
of  new  paths  in  the  cerebral  cortex  and  the  building  up  of 
new  aggregates  in  which  mental  development  consists, 
seldom  if  ever  occur  except  under  the  play  of  high  tension 
nerve  'currents.  Mental  development,  therefore,  may 
rightly  be  said  to  demand  high  tension  nerve  currents, 
whereas  the  needs  of  organic  development  are  ministered 
to  effectively  by  low  tension  currents. 

When  left  without  control,  it  seldom  happens  that 
nature  maintains  a  proper  balance  between  the  high 
and  the  low  tension  currents  or  between  mental  and 
physical  development  with  which  these  currents  are 
respectively  associated.  Moreover,  it  will  be  found  that 
the  balance  frequently  tends  to  swing  from  extreme  to 
extreme  resulting  in  the  puzzling  phenomena  of  pre- 
cociousness  and  retardation  and  in  their  curious  reversals. 

The  precocious  child  is  usually  undersized,  whereas 
periods  of  rapid  physical  growth  are  generally  character- 
ized by  low  nerve  tension  and  retarded  mental  develop- 
ment. Children  in  this  latter  condition  are  frequently 
classified  by  the  incompetent  teacher  as  dullards.  If  the 
children  in  any  fourth  or  fifth  grade  room  be  arranged 
according  to  size  and  physical  development,  they  will  be 
found  to  be  fairly  well  classified  in  the  inverse  order 
of  then*  mental  development. 

A  series  of  concentric  circles  described  around  the  center 
of  growth  (Fig.  1)  may  be  taken  to  represent  the  condi- 


198 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 


4-ab- 


FIG.  1. — Condition  of  balanced 
physical  and  mental  develop- 
ment. 

oa  axis  of  mental  development. 

ob  axis  of  mental  development. 


FIG.    2.  —  Condition    of    the    overgrown 

dullard. 

oa  axis  of  mental  development. 
ob  axis  of  physical  development. 


FIG.  3. — Condition  of  the  precocious, 
oa  axis  of  mental  development. 
ob  axis  of  physical  development. 


FIG.  4. — Illustrating  balances  be- 
tween mental  growth  and  men- 
tal development. 


BALANCES  IN  DEVELOPMENT  199 

tion  in  a  normal  child  in  whom  physical  and  mental 
development  are  maintained  in  a  balanced  condition, 
whereas  the  unbalanced  condition  found  in  the  dullard 
and  in  the  precocious  child  may  be  aptly  represented 
by  a  series  of  elipses  in  which  the  respective  centers  of 
growth  occupy  opposite  foci.  (Figs.  2  and  3.) 

Perfect  balance  between  physical  and  mental  develop- 
ment as  the  child  passes  on  from  infancy  to  maturity  is 
an  ideal  condition  but  it  is  a  condition  seldom  or  never 
realized.  Most  children  in  their  physical  and  mental 
development  depart  more  or  less  from  balance.  Those 
who  depart  most  from  this  norm  or  balance  in  either 
direction  are  in  greatest  danger  of  being  permanently 
injured  by  being  subjected  to  the  ordinary  routine  of  the 
school  and  by  coming  under  the  control  of  teachers  who 
have  little  understanding  of  their  condition  and  who  are 
consequently' unable  to  minister  to  their  peculiar  needs. 

There  is  a  growing  consciousness  of  the  need  of  doing 
whatever  may  be  possible  in  the  school  to  preserve  the 
balance  between  physical  and  mental  development.  It 
is  at  last  beginning  to  be  understood  that  the  undersized 
precocious  child  should  be  kept  from  over  mental  stimula- 
tion, hence  he  must  not  be  allowed  to  enter  into  competi- 
tion with  others.  Collateral  work  of  a  quieting  nature 
is  indicated  with  emphasis  on  physical  development,  play 
and  outdoor  exercise,  whereas,  the  converse  of  this  treat- 
ment is  demanded  by  the  overgrown  retarded  pupil. 
He,  too,  must  be  kept  from  competitive  work,  since  such 
competition  for  him  is  likely  to  result  in  failure  and 
discouragement.  Great  care  must  be  exercised  not  to 
assign  these  pupils  tasks  that  are  above  their  unaided 
effort  since  this  is  likely  to  result  in  discouragement  or  in 
parasitism  or  in  both.  To  awaken  and  stimulate  the 


200  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

mental  life  of  these  children,  the  endeavor  should  be 
made  to  find  something  in  which  they  succeed  and  use 
this  as  a  basis  from  which  to  proceed  in  awakening 
interest  and  stimulating  endeavor. 

This  unbalanced  condition  is  likely  to  reverse  itself 
automatically  in  due  time.  If  the  precocious  child  is 
saved  from  permanent  injury  to  health,  the  time  is  likely 
to  come  when  physical  development  will  set  in  and 
proceed  rapidly.  During  the  few  years  occupied  by  this 
phase  there  is  grave  danger  of  discouragement.  The 
child  seems  to  the  teacher  to  be  lazy  and  he  seems  to 
himself  to  be  dull.  The  contrast  with  his  former  interest 
and  success  discourages  him  and  if  left  to  himself  he  is 
likely  to  cease  all  further  efforts  along  lines  of  mental 
development.  This  undesirable  result,  however,  may  be 
avoided  in  large  measure  by  explaining  to  the  pupil,  who 
is  usually  of  an  age  to  understand,  the  physiological 
phenomena  in  question  and  by  pointing  out  the  fact  that 
his  present  undesirable  condition  is  likely  to  terminate 
in  a  few  years  and  be  followed  by  a  period  of  facile  mental 
achievement. 

The  aim  of  the  teacher  in  dealing  with  these  unbalanced 
children  should  be,  as  far  as  possible,  to  restore  balance 
by  protecting  the  precocious  pupil  from  over  stimulation 
and  by  encouraging  and  stimulating  the  overgrown  dull 
pupil.  Where  success  in  this  endeavor  is  questionable, 
every  available  precaution  must  be  taken  to  protect  the 
children  against  the  dangers  to  which  they  are  exposed. 

Next  in  importance  for  the  child's  future  to  the  preser- 
vation of  balance  between  physical  and  mental  develop- 
ment is  the  preservation  of  the  proper  relationship  or 
proper  balance  between  mental  growth  and  mental 
development. 


BALANCES  IN  DEVELOPMENT  201 

In  mental  development,  as  in  all  other  kinds  of  develop- 
ment, each  subsequent  phase  is  reached  through  a  recon- 
struction of  the  previous  phase.  In  this  reconstruction 
some  features  of  the  previous  phase  disappear  never  to 
return,  others  are  retained  with  little  or  no  alteration, 
while  still  other  features  that  were  only  implicitly  con- 
tained in  the  previous  phase  are  brought  out  and  rendered 
functional.  As  a  consequence  of  this  progressive  trans- 
formation, few  features  of  early  developmental  phases  will 
be  found  in  the  later  phases  of  any  long  developmental 
series.  The  early  phases  are,  therefore,  conditional; 
their  sole  function  is  performed  when  the  individual  is 
carried  forward  into  the  subsequent  phase. 

This  law  of  transformation,  which  governs  mental 
development  as  rigidly  as  it  governs  organic  development, 
carries  with  it  certain  important  implications  for  the 
guidance  of  the  teacher.  First  among  these  is  the 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  all  unnecessary  growth  serves 
to  impede  development.  When,  therefore,  mental  devel- 
opment is  the  desideratum,  great  care  should  be  exercised 
not  to  load  the  mind  with  anything  that  may  not  prove 
serviceable  in  bringing  about  the  mental  transformation 
which  should  be  taking  place.  Knowledge  that  may  be 
considered  useful  either  for  a  later  phase  of  mental 
development,  or  as  an  instrument  for  the  conquest  of 
environment,  has  no  legitimate  place  in  the  early  develop- 
mental periods  of  the  child's  life.  In  this  respect  organic 
development  furnishes  us  with  striking  illustrations. 
When  development  is  at  its  maximum  in  the  early 
embryonic  stages,  growth  is  at  its  minimum.  The 
mammalian  embryo  is  at  one  stage  of  its  development 
provided  with  gill  folds  and  with  a  circulatory  system 
designed  for  aquatic  respiration  but  the  business  of  these 


£02  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

rudimentary  structures  is  not  respiration  but  to  carry  the 
organism  forward  to  the  lung  stage.  Similarly,  in  the 
mental  life  of  the  child  the  business  of  the  growing  organs 
of  knowledge  is  not  to  conquer  an  environment  or  wrest 
the  truths  of  nature  from  then-  hiding  place  but  to  bring 
about  the  further  development  of  the  child  mind.  Growth 
in  knowledge  is  not  desirable  until  the  mind  has  reached 
a  stage  of  development  wherein  it  can  use  knowledge  for 
the  ends  and  aims  of  adult  life,  hence  the  natural  depend- 
ence of  the  child  upon  authority  instead  of  upon  evidence 
for  the  guidance  of  his  mental  processes  and  of  his  conduct; 
hence  the  possibility  and  the  need  of  education. 

When  this  truth  is  lost  sight  of  in  the  school  and  the 
child  mind  is  loaded  with  information  that  seems  calculated 
to  be  of  service  hi  adult  life,  or  when  the  child  is  asked 
to  function  with  his  immature  mind  as  if  he  were  not 
dependent  by  nature  upon  the  group  into  which  he  was 
born,  a  grievous  injury  is  done  to  him  through  which  he 
is  prevented  from  ever  reaching  the  high  plane  of  devel- 
opment which  would  be  his  were  unnecessary  growth 
restrained  until  the  proper  time.  Those  who  bend  the 
plastic  years  of  the  child  to  the  burden  of  memory  loads 
of  encyclopedic  knowledge,  sin  in  this  way  against  the 
child's  intellectual  nature,  and  those  who  would  impart 
to  the  immature  child  a  knowledge  of  sex  phenomena  that 
belongs  to  men  and  women  of  mature  years,  sin  in  a 
similar  manner  against  the  child's  emotional  and  moral 
nature.  In  the  doll  play  of  the  little  girl  we  have  the  early 
developmental  phases  of  future  motherhood,  but  this 
does  not  justify  us  in  replacing  the  doll  instinct  by  a 
scientific  account  of  the  mechanism  and  functions  of 
reproduction.  The  rule  should  be:  Give  the  child  only 
that  which  is  necessary  and  helpful  to  the  phase  of 
development  through  which  he  is  passing. 


BALANCES  IN  DEVELOPMENT  203 

Some  of  the  broad  relationships  between  mental  devel- 
opment and  mental  growth  may  be  illustrated  by  a  dia- 
gram such  as  that  given  in  Fig.  4.  The  inner  circle  is 
here  used  to  indicate  the  thirteenth  or  fourteenth  year  and 
the  outer  circle  represents  the  culmination  of  the  develop- 
mental period  which  occurs  in  the  twenty-eighth  or 
thirtieth  year.  The  pre-adolescent  period  is  essentially  a 
developmental  period  in  the  child's  mental  life.  His  views 
and  outlook  on  life  in  all  directions  are  undergoing  con- 
stant transformation.  The  culmination  of  this  period 
corresponds  roughly  with  the  termination  of  the  child's 
sojourn  in  the  elementary  school.  It  is  true  that  during 
adolescence  deep-seated  organic  changes  occur  which  are 
accompanied  by  profound  metamorphoses  of  emotional 
life  but  at  the  same  time  that  this  development  is  taking 
place  permanent  growth  along  several  lines  is  also  setting 
in.  The  youth  is  beginning  to  take  a  man's  view  of  many 
things  and  a  man's  attitude  towards  the  world.  Each  of 
the  five  rays  of  the  star  may  be  taken  to  represent  an  axis 
of  development  along  the  line  of  a  corresponding  social 
inheritance.  The  base  of  each  ray  broadens  out  until  it 
embraces  the  entire  development  of  the  child's  pre-adoles- 
cent life  and  it  narrows  to  a  point  as  it  reaches  the  cul- 
mination of  the  developmental  series.  The  areas  lying 
between  the  star  rays  and  the  outer  circle  represent  areas 
of  mental  growth  which  begin  with  the  advent  of  puberty 
and  widen  rapidly  until  they  represent  the  whole  of 
mental  life  at  maturity  towards  the  end  of  the  twenties. 

In  this  diagram  both  growth  and  development  are 
represented  as  proceeding  from  the  common  center  of 
the  star  and  the  circles.  Development  engrosses  the 
entire  field  up  to  the  completion  of  the  period  of  elemen- 
tary education.  From  this  time  onward  the  star  rays 
represent  a  balanced  development  along  the  five  lines  of 


204  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

our  social  inheritance.  The  sectors  lying  outside  the 
star  rays  and  within  the  outer  circle  represent  the  accu- 
mulation of  useful  information  and  instrumental  knowl- 
edge which  represent  vocational  education  or  the  fitting  of 
the  individual  for  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  adult 
life. 

Everything  in  the  developmental  area  is  transitional; 
the  powers  are  plastic  and  information  is  being  used  not 
for  the  conquest  of  outer  environment  but  for  the  trans- 
formation of  self;  the  areas  of  growth  represent  perma- 
nent acquisitions  which  are  dominated  by  the  adult  point 
of  view  and  are  designed  to  serve  the  purposes  of  adjusting 
the  individual  to  his  various  environments. 

The  child  cannot  see  things  in  a  man's  way  but  he  does 
need  and  can  use  a  man's  truths.  It  is  a  mistake  to  sup- 
pose that  a  child  is  interested  only  in  the  trivial;  he 
hungers  and  thirsts  for  the  greatest  truths,  but  he  needs 
them  and  he  demands  them  in  a  form  suited  to  his  stage 
of  development. 

It  will  be  conceded  by  every  teacher,  I  believe,  that  a 
child  of  eight  years  has  not  attained  to  a  mental  development 
such  as  would  enable  him  to  understand  the  first  chapter 
of  the  Gospel  according  to  St.  John.  The  sublime 
phrases:  "In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word 
was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God.  The  same  was 
in  the  beginning  with  God.  All  things  were  made  by 
Him :  And  without  Him  was  made  nothing  that  was  made  " 
have  no  meaning  for  the  child,  but  the  child  is  hungry  for 
God  and  for  the  doctrine  of  creation  and  of  Divine  Son- 
ship.  The  limitations  of  his  mind  demand  that  this  truth 
be  cast  for  him  in  other  «and  appropriate  form  and  when 
this  is  done  there  are  few  things  that  interest  him  so 
deeply  or  that  prove  more  wholesome  to  his  developing 
conscious  life. 


BALANCES  IN  DEVELOPMENT  205 

It  is  with  this  very  truth  that  the  First  Book  of  the 
Catholic  Education  Series  of  primary  text-books  begins 
and  the  reader  is  referred  there  for  a  presentation  of  these 
sublime  truths  in  a  form  that  captivates  the  minds  of 
children  of  six  years.  For  the  results  of  this  truth  properly 
presented  we  must  again  refer  the  reader  to  the  children 
who  are  passing  through  the  schools  where  this  method  is 
being  employed. 

Poets,  the  real  teachers  of  childhood,  have  often  essayed 
this  same  task  and  with  marked  success.  A  good  illus- 
tration of  this  mode  of  presenting  the  truth  may  be  found 
in  George  MacDonald's  Baby  Rhyme: 

Where  did  you  come  from,  baby  dear? 
Out  of  the  everywhere  into  the  here. 

Where  did  you  get  your  eyes  of  blue? 
Out  of  the  sky  as  I  came  through. 

What  makes  the  light  in  them  sparkle  and  spin? 
Some  of  the  sparry  spikes  left  in. 

Where  did  you  get  that  little  tear? 
I  found  it  waiting  when  I  got  here. 

What  makes  your  forehead  so  smooth  and  high? 
A  soft  hand  stroked  it  as  I  went  by. 

What  makes  your  cheek  like  a  warm,  white  rose? 
Something  better  than  anyone  knows. 

Whence  that  three  cornered  smile  of  bliss? 
Three  angels  gave  me  at  once  a  kiss. 

Where  did  you  get  that  pearly  ear? 
God  spoke  and  it  came  out  to  hear. 

Where  did  you  get  those  arms  and  hands? 
Love  made  itself  into  hooks  and  bands. 


206  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

Feet,  whence  did  you  come,  you  darling  things? 
From  the  same  box  as  the  cherubs  wings. 

How  did  they  all  just  come  to  be  you? 
God  thought  about  me  and  so  I  grew. 

How  did  you  come  to  us,  you  dear? 

God  thought  about  you,  and  so  I  am  here. 

The  child  of  eight  will  delight  in  these  rhymes  and  his 
delight  will  be  found  to  spring  from  the  content  no  less 
than  from  the  form.  The  content  appeals  to  his  imagina- 
tion and  sows  in  his  young  mind  germs  of  great  thoughts 
that  will  develop  with  his  years  until  he  is  finally  enabled 
to  understand  as  far  as  man  so  circumstanced  may  under- 
stand the  sublime  mysteries  concerning  which  the  evan- 
gelist speaks. 

In  examining  the  results  of  such  a  lesson  as  this  it  will 
be  found  that  the  child  will  learn  that  God  has  made  him 
and  that  his  eye  and  ear  and  all  the  rest  of  him  somehow 
came  from  God's  thought.  It  is  true  that  he  fails  utterly 
to  comprehend  how  God's  thought  is  realized  in  creation 
but  he  does  reach  the  idea  that  God  is  the  Creator  and 
that  secondary  agents  are  employed  to  perfect  and  con- 
tinue the  original  result  of  the  creative  act.  It  is  true 
that  he  fails  utterly  to  comprehend  the  doctrine  of  the 
Logos.  He  does  not  understand  in  the  least  how  God's 
thought  is  realized  in  creation,  but  it  is  equally  true  that 
he  has  no  desire  and  no  need  for  such  knowledge.  In  his 
state  of  mental  development  his  dependence  is  overwhelm- 
ingly on  authority  instead  of  on  internal  evidence.  Asser- 
tion is  all  he  needs.  He  is  no  more  conscious  of  the  need 
of  adjusting  his  mind  to  the  ultimate  problems  of  human 
thought,  such  as  those  involved  in  the  process  of  creation, 


BALANCES  IN  DEVELOPMENT  207 

than  an  embryo  in  the  first  stages  of  development  has  need 
of  adjusting  itself  to  the  outer  world  in  which  adults  carry 
on  the  struggle  for  existence. 

To  attempt  to  give  the  young  child  the  adult's  point  of 
view  is  to  ignore  the  need  and  capacity  of  his  mind.  To 
attempt,  on  the  other  hand,  to  secure  a  large  growth 
around  the  central  core  of  truth  which  the  child  mind  is 
capable  of  receiving  is  no  less  a  violation  of  the  laws  that 
govern  mental  development.  In  the  Baby  Rhyme  the 
central  truth  "God  thought  about  me  and  so  I  grew," 
will  remain  while  the  concrete  setting  will,  in  the  course  of 
time,  be  dissolved  out  in  the  light  of  the  child's  growing 
intelligence.  To  perpetuate  the  concrete  setting  such  as 
that  the  blue  of  his  eyes  came  from  the  sky,  that  tears 
were  added  from  the  outside,  or  that  his  ears  came  out  to 
hear,  as  literal  truths  would  be  to  defeat  the  child's 
mental  development.  It  would,  of  course,  be  absurd 
at  this  stage  of  the  child's  mental  development  to  make 
him  wrestle  with  the  pigment  cells  of  the  iris  and  with  the 
structure  and  function  of  the  lachrymal  glands  or  with 
the  labyrinth  of  the  internal  ear,  but  it  would  be  no  less 
absurd  to  have  the  child  carry  the  literal  statements  of 
the  rhyme  up  into  adult  life  and  there  use  them  as  a  refuta- 
tion of  the  truths  of  physiology. 

Scaffolding  of  this  sort  is  quite  necessary  to  the  develop- 
ing mind,  but  it  is  just  as  necessary  that  the  scaffolding 
should  be  removed  in  due  time.  The  amnion  and  the  alan- 
tois  are  necessary  to  the  development  of  the  mammalian 
embryo  but  they  must  both  be  removed  before  the  young 
animal  begins  to  breathe  and  to  live  an  independent  life 
in  the  outer  world.  Mental  scaffolding  carried  up  into 
adult  life  by  the  individual  or  carried  forward  by  a  people 
from  the  childhood  of  the  race  impedes  real  progress. 


208  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

Our  Saviour  pleaded  with  the  Jews  to  discard  such  race 
scaffolding:  "Amen,  I  say  to  you:  Whosoever  shall  not 
receive  the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  child,  shall  not  enter 
into  it."1  Unless  they  discarded  the  literal  meaning 
of  the  messages  which  came  to  them  through  type  and 
figure  and  prophecy,  and  the  literal  exactions  of  their 
human  customs,  and  opened  their  minds  to  the  inward 
kernel  of  truth,  they  could  not  enter  the  kingdom  of  God. 
St.  Paul  repeatedly  dwells  on  this  same  thought:  "Who 
also  hath  made  us  fit  ministers  of  the  new  testament,  not 
in  the  letter,  but  in  the  spirit.  For  the  letter  killeth  but 
the  spirit  quickeneth."2  And  again :  "  For  we  know  in  part 
and  we  prophesy  in  part  but  when  that  which  is  perfect  is 
come,  that  which  is  in  part  shall  be  done  away.  When  I 
was  a  child,  I  spoke  as  a  child,  I  understood  as  a  child,  I 
thought  as  a  child.  But,  when  I  became  a  man,  I  put 
away  the  things  of  a  child."3 

Clearly,  the  thing  of  predominant  importance  in  the 
early  days  of  childhood  is  development  and  any  truth  that 
fails  to  minister  to  this  development  should  be  withheld 
from  the  child.  To  give  it  out  of  due  time  would  not  aid 
the  child's  progress  but,  on  the  contrary,  would  work 
injury  and  cause  retardation.  The  principle  involved 
here  finds  perhaps  its  most  conspicuous  illustration  in  the 
types  and  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament  which  grad- 
ually prepared  the  Chosen  People  for  the  coming  of  the 
Messiah.  This  phylogenetic  aspect  of  the  educative 
process  was  parallelled  by  our  Lord  in  His  teaching  of  the 
individuals  who  gathered  around  Him  on  the  hillsides  of 


lLuke  xviii,  17. 
*2  Cor.  iii.  6. 
»1  Cor.  ziii.  9-13, 


BALANCE   IN    DEVELOPMENT  209 

Judea.  He  prepared  them  step  by  step,  by  miracle  and 
parable,  and  withheld  the  truth  in  its  literal  form  until 
they  were  ready  to  receive  it.  Witness  His  teaching  as 
recorded  in  the  sixth  chapter  pf  St.  John:  He  multiplied 
the  loaves  and  fishes  to  feed  the  hungry  multitude  and 
when,  on  the  f ollowing  day,  they  sought  Him  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Sea  of  Genesareth  He  called  up  the  memory  of 
the  miracle  of  the  previous  day  and  the  memory  of  the 
types  of  the  Old  Testament,  "Your  fathers  did  eat  manna 
in  the  desert,"  and  used  these  types  as  a  means  of  bringing 
home  to  His  audience  the  need  and  the  function  of  divine 
revelation  and  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  And  when  at 
the  end  He  was  about  to  leave  His  apostles  and  disciples, 
He  called  up  the  same  principle  in  His  memorable  saying: 
"I  have  many  things  to  say  to  you  but  you  cannot  bear 
them  now." 

The  parable  usually  ends  in  a  clear  formulation  of  truth 
such  as  the  statement  in  which  the  truth  embodied  in  the 
parable  of  the  lilies  is  declared:  "Seek  ye  therefore  first 
the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  justice  and  all  these  things 
shall  be  added  unto  you."  And  so,  hi  due  time,  mental 
development  must  give  place  in  the  child's  life  to  mental 
growth.  Truth  is  ministered  at  first  as  a  means  of 
promoting  development;  later  on  it  is  imparted  for  its 
own  sake  and  for  the  uses  that  may  be  made  of  it  to  forward 
the  ends  and  aims  of  hie  in  the  conquest  of  environment. 
As  development  ceases  hi  any  direction  of  the  mind's 
unfolding,  vigorous  and  rapid  growth  should  set  in,  for 
although  the  adolescent  is  still  far  from  comprehending 
any  truth  in  its  fulness,  he  does  not  differ  hi  this  respect 
from  the  adult  The  limitation  here  met  with  is  not  the 
limitation  of  the  undeveloped  mind  but  the  limitation  of 
the  finite  mind  that  is  ever  incapable  of  an  exhaustive 


210  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

knowledge  of  any  truth.    The  philosopher  agrees  with 
the  poet  in  this  sentiment: 

"Little  flower  in  the  crannied  wall, 
And  if  I  knew  thee,  root  and  all  and  all  in  all, 
I  would  know  what  God  and  man  is." 

It  is  therefore  the  business  of  the  teacher  and  of  all  who 
have  part  in  determining  the  content  of  the  curriculum  to 
preserve  as  far  as  may  be  in  the  child's  unfolding  conscious 
life  a  proper  balance  between  growth  and  development. 
Unfortunately  circumstances  frequently  render,  it  neces- 
sary to  subordinate  the  possibilities  of  the  child's  mental 
life  to  the  necessities  of  physical  life  and  instead  of  pro- 
moting development  to  its  highest  possible  level  it  becomes 
necessary  to  foreshorten  the  process,  to  arrest  the  child 
on  a  lower  plane  of  development  and  provide  him  pre- 
maturely with  the  means  of  self-support.  While  such  a 
compromise  may  not  infrequently  be  necessary,  it  should 
never  be  allowed  to  dim  our  ideal  nor  to  lessen  our  striving 
for  its  attainment. 

Balance  in  the  sense  of  symmetry  is  scarcely  less 
necessary  to  the  health  and  well-being  of  the  child's 
unfolding  mental  life  than  the  two  balances  discussed 
above. 

The  tree  that  grows  in  the  trade  winds  is  bent  and 
dwarfed  with  its  branches  growing  on  one  side  of  the 
stem.  Wherever  the  living  form  is  deprived  of  symmetry 
its  health  and  efficiency  are  impaired  in  a  proportionate 
degree.  Hence  we  find  life  everywhere  struggling  with 
environment  to  maintain  symmetry.  In  all  organic 
development  symmetry  is  secured  by  the  life  principle 
which  controls  the  processes  of  growth  and  development 
in  the  organism.  Symmetry  in  the  conscious  development 


BALANCE    OF   DEVELOPMENT  211 

of  animal  life  is  similarly  dependent  upon  forces  resident 
in  the  individual  and  known  under  the  name  of  instincts, 
but  in  the  human  infant  the  instincts  of  animal  nature 
are  found  in  a  rudimentary  or  atrophied  condition,  hence 
symmetry  in  the  child's  mental  development  must  be 
secured,  if  at  all,  through  the  conscious  efforts  of  parents 
and  teachers.  Even  in  the  child's  physical  development 
the  perfection  of  symmetry  depends  in  no  small  degree 
upon  education. 

The  child  may,  indeed,  inherit  partially  atrophied 
instincts  or  physical  predispositions  for  certain  lines  of 
mental  development,  nevertheless  he  must  be  taught 
even  the  rudiments  of  the  conscious  experience  of  the 
race.  The  school  is  the  institution  devised  by  society 
to  lead  the  child  into  the  rich  inheritance  accumulated 
for  him  by  the  conscious  efforts  of  man  throughout  all 
the  ages  of  the  past  and  it  is  to  this  same  agency  that  we 
must  look  for  the  preservation  of  symmetry  in  his  unfold- 
ing life. 

In  the  elementary  school  period,  in  particular,  every 
reasonable  effort  should  be  made  to  awaken  the  child's 
interest  and  to  develop  his  powers  proportionately  along 
the  divergent  lines  of  his  social  inheritance.  This  was 
indicated  in  the  diagram  shown  in  Fig.  4,  discussed  in  a 
preceding  page,  by  the  inner  circle  which  marked  the 
advent  of  puberty.  The  time  will  come,  however,  when 
the  individual  must  set  his  face  in  a  definite  direction  and 
begin  his  preparations  for  a  definite  life-work.  From  this 
time  forward  an  equal  development  along  the  lines  of  the 
five-fold  spiritual  inheritance  is  scarcely  practicable. 

While  it  is  true  that  the  advent  of  puberty  is  too  early 
to  begin  definite  specialization  for  a  vocation  if  the  highest 
all-round  development  is  to  be  secured,  or  if  sanity  and 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

power  are  to  be  achieved  in  the  chosen  field,  nevertheless 
it  is  not  too  early  for  the  pupil  to  indicate  the  direction 
of  his  future  life  work  by  the  predominance  of  his  interests 
and  the  unbalanced  development  of  his  powers.  From 
this  time  forward  the  main  effort  should  be  to  develop 
productivity  in  one  direction  and  receptivity  along  all  the 
other  axes  of  development.  It  is  not  feasible  to  aim  at 
productivity  in  more  than  one  line  but  for  good  work 
here  the  mind  must  be  in  condition  to  benefit  by  the  work 
done  in  other  fields  and  by  each  advance  made  by  remote 
groups  of  workers.  An  equal  development  in  all  direc- 
tions is  scarcely  a  feasible  ideal  for  secondary  and  higher 
education.  A  man  who  has  equal  power  in  many  direc- 
tions is  likely  to  have  no  more  than  moderate  power  in 
any  direction. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

EDUCATION  FOR  ECONOMIC  EFFICIENCY 

Man,  both  in  his  physical  and  in  his  conscious  life, 
begins  his  individual  existence  in  total  dependence  upon 
others  and  must,  through  the  processes  of  growth  and 
development,  with  the  assistance  and  under  the  control  of 
educative  agencies,  achieve  not  only  individual  indepen- 
dence but  efficiency  in  returning  to  society  an  equivalent 
for  all  that  he  has  received  therefrom  plus  his  propor- 
tionate share  in  the  further  development  of  society  itself 
and  in  the  further  enrichment  of  the  inheritance  to  be 
passed  on  to  future  generations. 

The  educative  process  must  at  every  step  take  into  ac- 
count the  solidarity  of  the  race  and  the  unitary  character 
of  individual  life.  Physical  and  mental  development 
cannot  be  separated  in  fact  and  secured  in  succession. 
The  processes  are  inseparably  linked  together.  As  the 
years  succeed  each  other  in  the  child's  life,  there  is  a  change 
of  emphasis  from  the  physical  to  the  mental,  and  for  pur- 
poses of  discussion  it  may  be  convenient  to  consider  the 
physical  side  of  the  process  before  undertaking  to  study  the 
higher  life  of  man  in  his  social  and  spiritual  relationships. 

It  is  the  business  of  education  not  only  to  protect  the 
health  of  the  child  and  to  promote  the  development  of 
his  brain  and  muscle,  but  so  to  train  his  eye  and  hand 
that  he  may  in  due  time  be  able  to  wrest  from  his  physical 
environment  the  means  of  support:  food,  shelter  and  the 
various  instrumentalities  of  physical  comfort  and  well- 
being.  Nor  does  this  mark  the  end  of  the  process.  Dur- 
ing infancy  and  childhood  the  individual  depends  on 
others  for  his  daily  dole  of  food  and  for  most  of  those 

£13 


214  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

things  on  which  the  maintenance  of  physical  life  depend 
and  if  the  race  is  to  continue  to  maintain  itself,  not  to 
speak  of  making  progress,  the  individual  in  due  time  must 
do  fdr  others  what  has  been  done  for  him.  Efficiency  in 
this  task  marks  the  culmination  of  the  educative  process 
a\ong  economic  lines.  The  purpose  of  this  line  of  educa- 
tive work  may  properly  be  designated  as  education  for 
economic  efficiency. 

When  the  educational  endeavor  is  directed  towards 
equipping  the  individual  for  self-support,  the  purpose  is 
sometimes  described  as  the  bread-and-butter-aim.  The 
validity  of  this  aim  is  nowhere  challenged  nor  will  it  be 
questioned  that  this  aim  should  be  the  first  to  engross 
the  attention  of  the  educator  after  due  provision  is  made 
for  the  health  and  physical  development  of  the  child. 
Indeed,  where  the  child  fails  to  attain  in  due  time  the 
power  of  self -support,  his  failure  will  destroy  self-respect 
and  set  up  processes  of  disintegration  which  will  go  far 
towards  the  destruction  of  his  physical  and  mental  life. 
Such  a  failure,  moreover,  not  only  works  disaster  to 
the  individual  but  inflicts  a  proportionate  injury  upon 
society. 

These  facts  are  generally  recognized,  nevertheless  our 
schools  not  infrequently  fail  to  achieve  the  bread-and- 
butter-aim.  It  is  well  to  note  that  these  failures  occur 
not  because  the  aim  seems  undesirable  or  unimportant 
but  because  the  process  through  which  economic  inde- 
pendence may  be  achieved  is  complex  and  often  beyond 
the  knowledge  and  control  of  the  teacher. 

Attention  has  often  been  called  to  the  likenesses  and 
differences  to  be  found  between  the  dependence  of  the 
young  mammal  upon  its  mother  and  of  the  parasite  upon 
its  host.  The  contrast  between  these  two  processes 


EDUCATION  FOR  ECONOMIC  EFFICIENCY  215 

affords  a  suggestive  and  profitable  analogy  for  those  who 
may  be  interested  in  training  the  child  for  economic 
efficiency. 

The  child's  dependence  upon  his  mother  is  normal  and 
to  it  is  due  in  no  small  measure  the  advance  of  the  mam- 
mal to  the  high  plane  of  life  which  it  occupies,  and  if  man 
considered  as  an  animal  has  attained  to  the  headship  of 
the  sentient  world,  this  exalted  position  is  also  due,  in 
large  measure,  to  the  fact  that  the  mother  supports  the 
child  during  a  long  period  of  dependence  in  which  all  the 
activities  of  the  child  may  be  devoted  to  his  own  develop- 
ment. The  dependence  of  the  parasite  upon  its  host,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  not  normal  nor  does  it  lead  to  the  devel- 
opment of  the  parasite,  but  on  the  contrary  it  produces 
in  it  a  corresponding  degree  of  degeneracy. 

Considered  superficially,  the  dependence  of  the  young 
upon  its  mother  resembles  the  dependence  of  the  parasite 
upon  its  host.  In  both  cases  there  is  exhibited  an  in- 
equality in  which  one  gives  and  the  other  receives,  but 
here  the  resemblance  ends.  In  both  cases  the  dependence 
is  not  a  fixed  state  but  a  progressive  one  and  the  move- 
ments in  the  two  cases  run  in  opposite  directions.  Para- 
sitism begins  in  complete  independence  and  culminates  in 
complete  dependence;  whereas  the  young  mammal  begins 
its  life  in  complete  dependence  upon  its  mother  and 
proceeds  gradually  towards  complete  independence.  Para- 
sitism is  due  to  the  avoidance  of  effort  and  to  a  following 
of  the  line  of  least  resistance.  The  independence  of  the 
growing  child  is  gained  step  by  step  through  effort  and  the 
overcoming  of  obstacles.  Whatever  tends  to  check  this 
growing  independence,  whether  it  be  an  obstacle  too  great 
for  the  child  to  overcome  or  a  line  of  lessened  resistance 
which  bids  too  strongly  to  imitate  tendencies  to  ease,  sets 


216  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

up  in  the  child  tendencies  to  social  parasitism  which  are 
accompanied  by  disastrous  consequences  analogous  to 
the  results  of  parasitism  in  the  lower  forms  of  life. 

The  characteristics  of  the  parasitism  of  locomotion  may 
be  studied  in  the  remora.  This  fish,  by  means  of  a  lamel- 
lated  suctorial  disc  on  the  top  of  its  head,  adheres  to  the 
shark  and  thus  secures  free  transportation,  but  the  result 
to  the  remora  of  this  escape  from  self-sustaining  labor  is  a 
system  of  flabby  and  partially  atrophied  muscles.  The 
parasitism  of  protection  is  illustrated  in  the  hermit  crab 
which  finds  protection  from  its  enemy  in  a  discarded 
conch-shell  and  pays  for  this  privilege  by  the  loss  of  a 
protective  carapace,  several  of  its  locomotor  appendages, 
and  its  freedom  of  movement.  A  still  lower  form  of 
parasitism  with  more  disastrous  results  is  exhibited  by  the 
tapeworm  which  absorbs  the  digested  food  prepared  by 
its  host  and  at  the  same  time  secures  favorable  tempera- 
ture, protection  and  free  transportation,  but  in  return  the 
creature  sacrifices  everything  worth  while  in  its  physical 
organism.  Through  disuse,  it  has  lost  its  alimentary 
tract,  its  nervous  system,  its  sense  organs,  its  locomotor 
appendages,  its  organs  of  excretion;  in  fact,  it  has  lost 
almost  every  power  but  that  of  perpetuating  itself 
through  groups  of  spores  which  it  sloughs  off  from  time 
to  time. 

Analogies  to  each  of  these  three  forms  of  parasitism  may 
be  discovered  with  little  effort  in  almost  any  of  our  schools. 
They  find  their  most  apt  illustration,  however,  in  the 
criminal  and  dependent  classes  of  our  adult  population 
which  bear  eloquent  testimony  to  the  frequent  failure  of 
our  schools  to  achieve  the  economic  independence  of  the 
pupils  entrusted  to  then*  care. 

The  support  which  the  parent  affords  the  child  during 


EDUCATION  FOR  ECONOMIC  EFFICIENCY  217 

the  long  period  of  its  immaturity  is  necessary  to  its  full 
development,  but  it  should  be  noted  that  this  support 
proves  valuable  only  in  so  far  as  it  is  utilized  by  the  child 
for  its  individual  development.  The  moment  it  is  used 
in  order  to  escape  healthful  effort  it  becomes  a  curse 
instead  of  a  blessing.  The  same  conditions  regulate  the 
dependence  of  the  child  in  his  mental  and  moral  processes 
upon  the  teacher  and  upon  his  fellow  pupils..  All  assist- 
ance that  leads  to  more  intense  or  to  better  directed  effort 
is  helpful,  but  the  moment  the  assistance  is  used  to  lessen 
due  effort  the  effect  is  in  the  direction  of  parasitism. 

The  degeneracy  of  the  children  of  the  nouveau  riche  has 
often  been  commented  upon.  The  fond  father,  remember- 
ing the  hardships  and  the  efforts  of  his  own  childhood, 
sometimes  foolishly  endeavors  to  relieve  his  children  from 
similar  efforts  and  in  doing  so  takes  away  the  necessary 
stimuli  for  the  development  of  their  characters  and  in- 
dependence and  sets  up  parasitic  habits  which  inevitably 
lead  to  ruin. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  repeatedly  that  the  children  of 
really  great  men  seldom  achieve  a  notable  career.  Not 
infrequently  the  reason  for  this  may  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  every  question  of  importance  is  likely  to  be  decided 
by  the  brilliant  parent  and  the  child,  relieved  of  the 
necessity  of  judging,  fails  to  obtain  the  exercise  of  his 
power  and  as  a  consequence  fails  to  develop.  His  condi- 
tion is  still  further  aggravated  by  the  fact  that  when  he 
does  venture  to  do  anything  or  to  decide  anything  he  is 
conscious  of  the  overshadowing  superiority  of  his  parent 
and  frequently  is  humilated  by  the  contempt  which  his 
well-meant  efforts  evoke. 

The  school  is  even  more  prolific  of  parasitic  habits 
than  the  home.  At  times  the  child  is  discouraged  by 


218  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

tasks  which  are  wholly  beyond  his  capacity  and  such  dis- 
couragement always  tends  to  arrest  development  and  to 
set  up  habits  of  dependence.  When  the  teacher  assigns 
a  task  that  is  too  difficult  and,  after  the  pupil  has  failed 
to  accomplish  it,  does  the  work  himself,  there  is  an  added 
incentive  to  parasitism.  Frequently  the  children  help 
one  another  or  seek  and  find  help  at  home,  and  in  these 
latter  cases  the  evil  may  be  worse  than  in  the  former 
for  the  teacher  may  be  supposed  to  take  some  means  to 
evoke  successful  effort  from  the  pupil,  whereas  less  skilful 
companions  and  members  of  the  home  group  are  likely  to 
be  wholly  unaware  of  the  dangers  which  inevitably  attend 
upon  helps  given  to  the  child  in  the  performance  of 
assigned  tasks. 

The  dangers  of  forming  parasitic  habits,  great  and  real 
as  these  are  in  both  the  home  and  the  school,  should  not 
lead  us  to  deny  to  the  child  that  help  and  support  which 
are  necessary  to  his  normal  development.  Such  a  pro- 
cedure would  mean  grave  loss  both  to  the  individual  and 
to  society.  As  far  as  circumstances  will  permit,  all  the 
help  that  will  be  profitably  used  by  the  child  in  the  devel- 
opment of  his  body,  of  his  mind,  and  of  his  character, 
should  be  given,  and  in  the  giving  the  best  interests  of 
society  are  served.  When  the  poverty  of  the  family 
makes  it  necessary  to  use  the  efforts  of  the  immature 
child  for  family  support  instead  of  for  the  child's  own 
development  there  is  loss  not  to  the  child  alone  but  to  the 
family  and  to  the  state.  In  this  consideration  free  schools 
find  their  justification,  and  in  the  same  consideration  it  is 
sought  to  justify  the  growing  practice  of  supplying  the 
child's  need  through  the  school  in  other  than  educative 
directions.  The  children  are  sometimes  fed  in  the  school. 
Their  eyes  are  examined  and  glasses  provided  by  the  school. 


EDUCATION  FOR  ECONOMIC   EFFICIENCY  219 

Adenoids  are  removed  by  the  school  surgeon  and  district 
nurses  furnished  by  the  school  seek  to  assuage  many  of  the 
ills  to  which  flesh  is  heir.  The  wisdom  of  supplying  the 
children  with  these  helps  is  scarcely  open  to  question,  even 
though  the  wisdom  of  supplying  this  help  through  the 
school  instead  of  through  the  home  may  be  seriously 
questioned. 

The  bread-and-butter-aim  rightly  understood  does  not 
mean  that  the  home  and  the  school  should  endeavor  to 
prepare  the  child  for  self-support  at  the  earliest  possible 
moment.  On  the  contrary,  it  should  mean  that  the 
attainment  of  self-support  in  due  course  of  time  is  kept 
in  view  hi  every  stage  of  the  educative  process.  In  laying 
the  foundations  of  bodily  health  and  strength,  in  keenness 
of  vision  and  skill,  in  bodily  movements  and  in  the  hand- 
ling of  tools  and  instruments,  a  remote  preparation  is 
being  made  which,  if  properly  seconded,  will  mean  high 
efficiency  in  the  end. 

In  considering  the  bread-and-butter-aim,  attention 
has  been  centered  upon  the  economic  needs  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  upon  the  individual's  growing  power  to  meet 
these  needs.  In  human  society,  however,  the  individual 
does  not  live  in  isolation,  nor  can  he  achieve  independence 
and  support  except  in  combination  with  his  fellow-man. 
He  produces  one  thing  in  excess  of  his  needs  and  exchanges 
this  with  others  who  have  produced  some  other  necessary 
thing  in  excess  of  their  need.  Nor  does  the  matter  rest 
here.  Civilized  man,  at  least,  has  long  since  passed 
beyond  such  simple  conditions  as  are  indicated  by  this 
illustration.  In  the  growing  complexity  of  the  economic 
systems  under  which  civilized  man  lives,  bread  and  butter 
is  still  necessary  to  the  individual,  and  pressure  of  various 
kinds  is  brought  to  bear  upon  the  individual  to  make 


220     '  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

him  earn  it.  But  when  attention  is  centered  on  the  group 
cooperating  in  the  production  of  the  various  commodities 
used  in  the  conduct  of  civilized  life,  and  when  educational 
endeavor  is  directed  to  the  fitting  of  the  individual  for 
efficiency  in  this  cooperative  group,  it  may  be  better  to 
speak  of  the  directive  purpose  as  the  industrial  aim  rather 
than  the  bread-and-butter-aim. 

The  home  is,  of  course,  the  primitive  school,  and  it 
should  always  remain  a  most  effective  school.  Under 
normal  conditions  it  conducts  not  only  the  education  of 
the  infant  but,  even  after  the  child  enters  school,  the  home 
continues  to  have  charge  of  him  during  the  greater  por- 
tion of  each  day.  That  the  parents  should  be  animated 
by  purely  altruistic  motives  in  what  they  do  for  the  child 
is  an  ideal  that  is  not  always  realized.  The  good  of  the 
child  may  be  kept  in  view  without  losing  sight  of  the 
interests  of  the  home.  In  the  industrial  home  of  the  past 
the  child  at  an  early  age  was  a  real  asset.  His  labor  con- 
tributed an  ever-increasing  share  of  the  support  of  the 
home. 

The  school  was  created  by  society  and  is  maintained  by 
society  presumably  for  the  good  of  society.  The  individ- 
ual's good  is  considered  only  in  so  far  as  it  is  included  in 
the  good  of  society.  In  the  home  parental  love  supplies 
disinterested  effort,  but  society  lacks  the  warm,  throbbing 
heart  of  the  parent  and  it  seldom  achieves  disinterested 
love  for  any  individual.  In  so  far,  therefore,  as  the  school 
undertakes  the  development  of  the  pupil  for  self-support, 
it  is  considering  even  the  self-support  of  the  individual 
in  the  light  of  preventing  burdens  from  being  imposed 
upon  society,  and  its  further  consideration  is  to  develop 
the  individual  so  as  to  increase  the  economic  efficiency 
of  society. 


EDUCATION  FOB  ECONOMIC  EFFICIENCY  221 

While  society  is  presumably  seeking  its  own  ends  in 
educating  the  individual  to  industrial  efficiency,  the  in- 
dividual being  educated  is  not  necessarily  moved  by 
altruistic  motives.  His  intelligence  may  be  sufficiently 
developed  to  enable  him  to  realize  that  he  can  no  more 
attain  his  individual  aims  in  isolation  than  Shylock  could 
obtain  his  pound  of  flesh.  It  is  conceivable,  therefore, 
that  he  might  second  the  efforts  of  the  school  in  his  behalf 
without  being  animated  by  the  same  motive  as  that  which 
moves  the  school.  It  is  highly  important,  for  the  good 
of  society,  that  the  individual's  motives  be  socialized,  but 
it  frequently  happens  that  they  are  not.  The  school  that 
fails  in  this  respect  fails  in  a  most  important  aspect  of  its 
duty  to  the  individual  and  to  society. 

The  dependence  of  the  individual  upon  the  group  for 
the  attainment  of  self-support  may  be  witnessed  far  below 
man  in  the  scale  of  animal  life.  The  dependence  of  the 
individual  upon  the  group  indeed  constitutes  one  of  the 
most  striking  characteristics  of  such  lowly  forms  as  ants 
and  bees.  Efficient  cooperation  and  a  high  degree  of 
specialization  of  function  may  be  observed  in  these 
insect  colonies.  There  is,  however,  no  trace  of  altruistic 
motives.  In  like  manner,  the  cooperation  of  man  with 
his  fellow-man  in  life-sustaining  labors  may  be  secured 
without  the  employment  of  an  ethical  motive,  but  when 
man  cooperates  with  his  fellow-man  for  the  attainment 
of  individual  aims  alone  he  is  not  functioning  on  a  plane 
of  life  above  that  of  the  mere  animal,  nor  does  his  coopera- 
tion ever  attain  a  high  degree  of  efficiency  or  become 
operative  in  the  attainment  of  remote  ends. 

The  more  complex  our  civilization  becomes  and  the  more 
completely  we  pass  from  a  tool  to  a  machine  civilization, 
the  more  necessary  does  it  become  for  man  to  learn  to 


222  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

cooperate  efficiently  with  his  fellow-man  in  order  to  sustain 
life  and  to  attain  to  the  well-being  and  happiness  that  his 
nature  demands.  To  secure  such  cooperation  and  to 
secure  it  with  the  right  motives  and  along  right  lines 
becomes,  therefore,  the  business  of  education.  Nor  is 
the  task  a  light  one.  The  instinctive  inheritance  of  the 
ant  and  the  bee  determines  the  cooperation  of  individual 
with  individual  for  the  attainment  of  the  common  ends 
of  the  colony,  but  the  infant  does  not  number  this  co- 
operative instinct  among  his  endowments  and  he  must 
acquire  both  the  ability  and  the  habit  of  cooperating 
with  his  fellows  through  education. 

Three  educational  agencies  have  in  the  past  played 
r61es  of  varying  importance  in  educating  to  industrial 
efficiency:  the  home,  the  apprenticeship  system  and  the 
school.  At  times  these  have  worked  in  cooperation.  In 
primitive  times  the  home  practically  dominated  this 
phase  of  education.  At  present  the  tendency  is  to  place 
this  burden  chiefly  upon  the  school. 

Under  primitive  conditions,  the  child  and  the  youth 
were  taught  by  parents  and  by  the  elders  of  the  tribe  to 
cooperate  with  then*  fellows  in  all  life-sustaining  labors. 
As  society  advanced  in  organization  and  greater  skill 
along  certain  lines  of  activity  was  demanded,  there  gradu- 
ally arose  definite  educative  agencies  whose  business  it 
was  to  impart  the  necessary  skill. 

In  the  sixth  and  following  centuries  the  Benedictine 
monks  taught  the  Roman  world  the  dignity  of  labor  and 
trained  the  nomads  in  the  arts  of  peace.  As  a  result  of 
these  training  schools  industry  advanced  in  Europe  and  the 
industrial  arts  and  the  fine  arts  were  developed  to  a  rela- 
tively high  degree  of  perfection.  In  the  course  of  tune 
this  educational  function  was  taken  over  by  guilds  and 
by  the  apprenticeship  system. 


EDUCATION  FOB  ECONOMIC  EFFICIENCY  223 

Throughout  the  entire  history  of  education  for  indus- 
trial efficiency  it  may  be  noted  that  just  as  in  the  physical 
dependence  of  the  young  upon  its  parent  the  high  develop- 
ment of  the  adult  is  the  end  sought,  so  the  activity  of  the 
child  is,  and  should  be,  concerned  with  self -development 
and  with  resulting  adult  power.  Whenever  this  principle 
is  violated,  retrogression  results.  When  the  child  or  the 
youth  labors  solely  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  present  mo- 
ment, without  taking  into  account  the  effect  of  such  labor 
on  his  later  life,  there  results  an  arrest  of  development  and 
a  lowering  of  ultimate  efficiency.  It  is  natural,  however, 
that  this  should  be  the  procedure  when  the  child  is  left  to 
follow  his  own  impulses,  which  for  the  most  part  deal  with 
present  needs,  hence  advance  to  higher  degrees  of  industrial 
efficiency  is  obtainable  only  through  the  exercise  of  author- 
ity. The  parent,  the  tribe,  or  organized  society  must 
exercise  due  authority  in  controlling  the  child's  activity 
so  that  it  may  result  in  promoting  the  best  interests  of 
the  child  as  well  as  the  best  interests  of  the  adult  and  of 
society  itself. 

The  religious  revolt  of  the  sixteenth  century  profoundly 
disturbed  the  social  and  economic  conditions  of  Europe 
and  led  to  deep-seated  changes  in  educational  policies 
which  reached  out  beyond  the  school  and  affected  indus- 
trial education  as  imparted  in  the  home  and  in  the  shop. 
The  breaking  up  at  that  time  of  the  old  order  in  war  and 
in  peace  necessarily  affected  economic  conditions  and  called 
for  due  change  in  the  education  of  the  masses.  Comparing 
the  past  with  the  present,  Mr.  Prosser,  Secretary  of  the 
National  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Industrial  Educa- 
tion,1 says: 

"The  century  that  gave  us  Shakespeare  and  Bacon  had 
economic  and  social  problems  of  the  same  general  character 

»Proc.  N.  E.  A.,  1915.  p.  296. 


224  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

as  those  of  our  times — the  decay  of  towns,  the  social  unrest, 
the  instability  of  the  rural  population,  the  increase  of  pau- 
perism and  unemployment,  and  the  diminution,  actual  and 
feared,  of  industrial  skill.  The  Elizabetnans  established  a 
system  of  compulsory  apprenticeship  to  solve  them,  which 
embodied  a  philosophy  and  established  general  policies 
with  regard  to  child  labor  and  child  training  in  industry 
to  which  we  must  give  heed  before  we  can  meet  success- 
fully the  same  question.  The  Elizabethan  statute  of 
compulsory  apprenticeship  was  the  expression  of  the 
experience  of  the  English  nation  stretching  over  a  period 
of  more  than  two  centuries  with  regard  to  the  employment 
and  education  of  children  for  industry.  In  a  primitive 
age  it  asserted  certain  fundamental  principles  concerning 
the  relation  of  the  state  to  the  training  and  conservation 
of  youth  which  are  no  less  true  and  applicable  in  our  own 
day." 

The  author  proceeds  to  formulate  the  following  five 
principles  which  express  a  growing  conception  of  the  rela- 
tionship of  the  state  to  the  industrial  training  of  children 
and  youths:1 

1.  A  nation-wide   system   of   industrial   education   is 
necessary  to  the  economic  prosperity  and  supremacy  of 
the  country. 

2.  Governmental  control  and  regulation  of  the  employ- 
ment and  training  of  the  youth  in  industry  is  necessary  to 
the  accomplishment  of  a  nation-wide  system  of  industrial 
education. 

3.  Training  for  industry  and  the  labor  of  children  in 
industry  are  matters  of  public  concern  which  the  state 
has  the  duty  as  well  as  the  right  to  control,  as  far  as  the 
welfare  of  the  youth  and  the  public  good  may  require. 

1  Op.  tit.,  p.  297. 


EDUCATION  FOR  ECONOMIC  EFFICIENCY  225 

4.  The  child  is  the  ward  of  society  over  whom  the  state 
should  assert  such  a  guardianship  both  in  his  employment 
and  in  his  education  as  may  be  necessary  to  make  him  a 
responsible  citizen  and  an  intelligent  worker. 

5.  The  primary  purpose  of  the  youth  in  industry  should 
not  be  immediate  profit  to  his  employer  or  to  society  but 
preparation  for  life  and  for  labor,  and  his  career  as  a 
young  worker  should  be  controlled  and  supervised  by  the 
state  so  as  to  insure  this  end. 

With  the  intervention  of  the  national  government  in 
the  education  of  children  and  youths  for  industry,  the 
aim  is  lifted  beyond  that  of  mere  skill  in  industry  and  may 
be  more  properly  spoken  of  as  education  for  economic 
efficiency.  It  is  no  longer  the  guild  that  governs,  nor  is 
the  aim  any  longer  the  exaltation  of  the  individual  craft 
or  the  welfare  of  those  concerned  in  it.  The  interests  of 
all  crafts  and  all  industries  merge  in  the  interests  of  the 
people  as  a  whole.  The  aim  is  the  prosperity  of  the  nation. 

The  nation  is  not  concerned  primarily  with  the  individ- 
ual or  his  welfare  or  with  the  exaltation  of  any  particular 
industry.  It  is  concerned  with  the  industrial  output  of  a 
nation  as  a  whole,  and  hence,  when  it  uses  its  authority 
in  the  field,  it  uses  it  to  establish  a  nation-wide  system  of 
industrial  education  to  the  end  that  the  prosperity  and 
supremacy  of  the  nation  may  be  secured.  This  was  the 
guiding  motiye  of  Bismarck  in  developing  industrial 
education  in  Germany  and  it  was  without  doubt  the  reason 
that  led  England,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  to  make  ap- 
prenticeship compulsory.  The  English  Parliament  sought 
thereby  to  promote  England's  trade  supremacy  through 
the  increased  skill  of  her  workers.  The  fundamental 
principle  involved  is  simple:  the  ability  of  a  nation  to 
compete  successfully  in  the  markets  of  the  world  de- 


226  PHILOSOPHY  OF   EDUCATION 

pends  upon  the  ability  of  her  workers  to  produce  more 
goods  and  goods  of  a  better  quality  than  her  competi- 
tors. This  same  principle  determines  the  prosperity  of 
local  communities. 

In  the  course  of  time,  owing  chiefly  to  the  advent  of 
labor-saving  machinery  and  to  the  concentration  of  capital 
in  industrial  enterprises^  the  apprentice  system  in  England 
broke  down.  New  means  to  secure  the  same  end  were 
urgently  demanded  and  the  schools  were  substituted,  A 
similar  stress  was  felt  throughout  Europe. 

Bismarck  met  the  situation  by  establishing,  through 
state  control,  a  system  of  compulsory  continuation 
schools  to  supplement  the  apprenticeship  system.  A 
knowledge  of  the  laws  lying  back  of  the  materials  and  of 
the  principles  involved  in  the  industrial  process  was 
imparted  in  the  school,  while  the  apprenticeship  system 
continued  to  give  skill  to  hand  and  eye.  It  is  to  this 
combination,  rather  than  to  the  high  character  of  the 
continuation  schools  themselves,  that  the  commercial 
supremacy  of  modern  Germany  is  due.  England  allowed 
the  apprenticeship  system  to  fall  into  decay  and  thus  lost 
her  industrial  leadership. 

A  return  to  the  apprenticeship  system,  however,  does 
not  seem  possible  either  in  this  country  or  in  England. 
Even  in  its  highest  development  in  seventeenth-century 
England  it  affected  only  a  small  portion  of  the  population 
who  were  prepared  by  it  for  the  skilled  trades.  It  did 
not  reach  the  rural  population.  Moreover,  in  this  country 
the  problem  is  rendered  still  more  difficult  by  the  fact  that 
remedy  must  be  sought,  not  from  the  national  government, 
but  from  the  legislatures  of  the  several  states.  We  have 
no  national  system  of  education,  nor  does  the  nation,  as 
such,  exercise  its  guardianship  over  childhood. 


EDUCATION  FOR  ECONOMIC  EFFICIENCY  227 

The  first  attempt  made  by  the  several  states  to  aid  in 
the  solution  of  the  problems  involved  in  industrial  educa- 
tion was  the  enactment  by  several  of  them  of  laws  de- 
signed to  prevent  the  exploitation  of  the  labor  of  childhood 
and  youth  at  the  expense  of  the  adult  for  the  immediate 
benefit  of  capital.  It  still  remains  to  be  determined  how 
far  it  may  be  wise  for  the  state  to  take  an  active  part  in 
the  compulsory  control  of  the  industrial  education  given 
to  our  youths.  The  spirit  of  our  people  renders  many 
things  unwise  or  impossible  which  may  be  in  entire  keeping 
with  the  national  life  of  other  countries.  It  still  remains 
to  be  seen  how  far  we  may  proceed  even  in  the  name  of 
wisdom  to  control  the  actions  of  a  people  who  in  youth, 
as  well  as  in  adult  life,  are  insistent  upon  the  personal 
right  of  employing  their  energies  as  they  see  fit  whether 
their  decision  may  embody  the  highest  wisdom  or  not. 
The  method  employed  in  Germany,  however  successful  it 
may  have  proven  there,  will  scarcely  find  favor  in  this 
country. 

The  difficulties  of  the  situation,  however,  should  not 
blind  us  to  the  fact  that  it  is  the  business  of  education  to 
fit  the  children  of  each  generation  to  take  their  places 
effectively  under  the  conditions  of  the  economic  world 
which  they  will  meet  on  reaching  adult  years. 

At  present  the  United  States  Government  is  appro- 
priating funds  towards  the  upbuilding  and  support  of 
agricultural  and  vocational  schools.  Several  of  the 
states  and  individual  cities  are  following  a  similar  course. 
There  is,  in  fact,  a  growing  recognition  of  the  need  of 
efficient  training  in  the  various  fields  of  industry,  but  we 
have  yet  to  determine  upon  the  means  to  be  employed  to 
the  attainment  of  this  end. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
EDUCATION  FOR  SOCIAL  EFFICIENCY 

Economic  efficiency  is  a  desirable  quality  in  the  human 
adult  and  the  production  of  this  quality  is  both  a  legitimate 
and  a  necessary  aim  in  education,  but  it  is  neither  the  sole 
aim  nor  the  highest  aim  of  the  educative  process  and  it 
must  not  be  allowed  to  monopolize  the  attention  of  the 
teacher  nor  to  occupy  an  undue  share  of  the  pupil's  time 
and  attention.  Moreover,  since  man's  adjustment  to  his 
physical  environment  is  not  the  ultimate  aim  of  life  but  a 
mere  prerequisite  to  the  development  of  those  higher 
qualities  in  which  the  true  values  of  human  life  are  to  be 
found,  the  ultimate  motives  for  economic  endeavor  must 
be  sought  elsewhere  than  in  the  industrial  process  or  its 
results.  In  fact,  the  chief  value  of  economic  efficiency 
both  to  the  individual  and  to  society  is  to  be  found  in  the 
leisure  which  it  secures  for  the  pursuit  of  higher  aims. 

However,  the  value  to  man  of  personal  labor  is  not  to 
be  found  solely  in  the  acquisition  of  food  and  shelter  and 
of  material  possessions.  Health  and  normal  organic 
development  are  promoted  by  reasonable  exercise  of  the 
physical  and  mental  powers  which  are  brought  into  play  in 
industrial  processes  and  thus  a  foundation  is  laid  for  the 
development  of  man's  higher  powers.  In  this  sense  eco- 
nomic efficiency  is  not  only  a  prerequisite  but  a  means  to 
the  attainment  of  complete  living  and  social  efficiency. 

After  the  tragedy  in  the  Garden,  Jehovah  promised 
redemption  to  man  and  proceeded  to  enlighten  Adam's 
darkened  intellect  concerning  the  redemption  of  his  flesh : 
"In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread  till  thou 
return  to  the  earth  out  of  which  thou  wast  taken:  For 

2*8 


EDUCATION  FOR  SOCIAL   EFFICIENCY  229 

dust  thou  art,  and  into  dust  thou  shalt  return."  This 
sentence  was  not  a  curse  but  a  blessing,  and  the  more  man 
advances  in  civilization  the  more  he  realizes  the  necessity 
of  labor  and  the  blessings  which  it  brings.  St.  Benedict 
did  not  hesitate  to  link  labor  with  prayer  in  the  means  to 
be  employed  by  his  children  for  the  salvation  of  their 
souls.  But  in  this  combination  labor  was  to  receive  its 
motivation  through  prayer  and  through  the  desire  for  the 
higher  things  of  the  spirit. 

In  this,  the  Saint  followed  the  lines  laid  down  in  the 
sacred  scriptures  for  we  read  in  Deuteronomy:1  "He 
afflicted  thee  with  want,  and  gave  thee  manna  for  thy 
food,  which  neither  thou  nor  thy  fathers  knew:  to  show 
that  not  in  bread  alone  doth  man  live,  but  in  every  word 
that  proceedeth  from  the  mouth  of  God."  "Dust  thou 
art  and  into  dust  thou  shalt  return,"  was  not  spoken  of 
the  soul,  which,  though  linked  to  the  flesh,  was  destined 
by  its  very  nature  to  endure  forever  and  to  seek  unceas- 
ingly for  divine  companionship.  Bread  is  necessary  to 
the  flesh  which  by  its  nature  is  doomed  to  perish,  but  the 
word  of  God  is  equally  necessary  to  the  spirit  through 
which  man  claims  an  undying  life. 

Our  Saviour,  in  His  teaching,  frequently  alluded  to  this 
dual  nature  in  man  and  pointed  out  the  superiority  of  the 
higher  aims  in  life  over  bread-winning  and  the  accumula- 
tion of  riches  without,  however,  denying  the  validity  of 
the  lowlier  aims.  In  the  fourth  chapter  of  St.  Matthew 
we  read:  "Then  Jesus  was  led  by  the  spirit  into  the  desert, 
to  be  tempted  by  the  devil.  And  when  he  had  fasted  forty 
days  and  forty  nights,  afterwards  He  was  hungry.  And 
the  tempter  coming  said  to  him:  If  Thou  be  the  Son  of 
God,  command  that  these  stones  be  made  bread.  Who 

1  Deut.  viii,  3. 


230  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

answered  and  said:  It  is  written,  Not  in  bread  alone  doth 
man  live,  but  in  every  word  that  proceedeth  from  the 
mouth  of  God."1  This  contrast  of  aims  is  used  by  our 
Lord  again  as  recorded  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  St.  John: 
Jesus  multiplied  the  loaves  and  fishes  and  fed  the  hungry 
multitude  and  on  the  following  day  when  the  multitude 
sought  Him  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea  of  Genesareth,  He 
said  to  them:  "Amen,  amen  I  say  to  you,  you  seek  Me, 
not  because  you  have  seen  miracles,  but  because  you  did 
eat  of  the  loaves,  and  were  filled.  Labor  not  for  the  meat 
which  perisheth,  but  for  that  which  endureth  unto  life 
everlasting,  which  the  Son  of  man  will  give  you."2  These 
hungry  Jews  had  lost  sight  of  the  higher  life  in  their  eager 
pursuit  of  bread  and  for  this  they  were  rebuked  by  the 
Master,  and  after  two  thousand  years  the  same  mistake  is 
still  being  made  by  many  who  call  themselves  followers  of 
Christ,  and  the  same  rebuke  is  being  earned.  In  the 
whole  experience  of  the  human  race,  it  has  been  abun- 
dantly shown  that  success  in  the  pursuit  of  wealth  is  likely 
to  end  in  a  failure  to  appreciate  the  higher  things  of  life. 
This  smothering  of  the  higher  aim  in  the  lower  was  the 
central  theme  in  many  of  our  Lord's  lessons.  Our  Lord, 
explaining  to  his  disciples  the  parable  of  the  sower  who 
went  out  to  sow  his  seed,  said :  "And  that  which  fell  among 
thorns  are  they  who  have  heard,  and  going  their  way,  are 
choked  with  the  cares  and  riches  and  pleasures  of  this  life, 
and  yield  no  fruit."3  The  rich  young  man  caught  a 
glimpse  of  the  higher  things  of  the  kingdom  and  yearned 
for  them  but  his  successful  pursuit  of  wealth  had  attained 
to  a  position  of  control  in  his  life  and  caused  him  to 
renounce  the  higher  aim  for  the  lower.  It  was  the  fre- 

1Matt.  iv.  1-4. 
1  John  vi,  26-27. 
1  Luke  viii,  14. 


EDUCATION  FOR  SOCIAL  EFFICIENCY  231 

quent  occurrence  of  this  bondage  of  the  spirit  to  the  flesh 
that  led  our  Saviour  to  declare  that  it  was  as  hard  for  a 
rich  man  to  enter  heaven  as  for  a  camel  to  pass  through 
the  eye  of  a  needle,  and  it  was  this  that  led  Him  to  de- 
scribe such  men  as  fools,  as  He  does  in  the  parable  of  the 
rich  man  who  was  about  to  build  new  barns  to  house  his 
abundant  harvest:  "But  God  said  to  him:  Thou  fool,  this 
night  do  they  require  thy  soul  of  thee:  and  whose  shall 
those  things  be  which  thou  hast  provided?  So  is  he  that 
layeth  up  treasure  for  himself,  and  is  not  rich  towards 
God."1  Following  immediately  upon  this  passage  our 
Lord  formulates  the  principles  which  should  govern  the 
relative  position  of  the  lower  and  higher  aims  of  life. 
"Therefore  I  say  to  you,  be  not  solicitous  for  your  life, 
what  you  shall  eat;  nor  for  your  body,  what  you  shall  put 
on.  The  life  is  more  than  the  meat,  and  the  body  is 
more  than  the  raiment.  .  .  .  Seek  ye  therefore  first  the 
kingdom  of  God  and  His  justice,  and  all  these  things  shall 
be  added  unto  you." 

The  recognition  of  the  fatherhood  of  God  carries  with  it 
the  recognition  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  and  fixes  the 
practical  norm  of  human  conduct  which  was  formulated 
in  the  Old  Testament  and  accepted  by  our  Lord  as  the 
dual  commandment  of  the  New  Law:  "Thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God  with  thy  whole  heart  and  with  thy  whole 
soul  and  with  thy  whole  mind.  This  is  the  greatest  and 
the  first  commandment.  And  the  second  is  like  unto  this : 
Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  On  these  two 
commandments  dependeth  the  whole  law  and  the  pro- 
phets."2 

The  Master  here  brings  to  view  the  fountain  of  Divine 


1  Luke  xii,  20-21. 
1  Matt,  vi,  25.  33. 


232  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

law  from  which  the  Chosen  People  drank  and  which  pre- 
served them  from  the  ruin  that  fell  upon  their  neighbors, 
and  it  is  from  this  same  source  that  Christianity  has  drawn 
its  inspiration  and  its  strength.  It  is  this  that  gives 
meaning  to  the  phrase  social  service  and  makes  educa- 
tion for  social  efficiency  the  high  and  noble  aim  that  it  is. 
As  Christians,  we  must  strive  not  alone  for  food  and  rai- 
ment for  our  bodies,  but  we  must  strive  for  the  attainment 
of  riches  towards  God  and  the  possession  of  temporal  goods 
that  we  may  have  wherewith  to  minister  to  our  neighbor's 
need.  It  is  this  high  motive  that  saves  economic  efficiency 
from  degradation  and  makes  it  worthy  of  a  place  in  the 
Christian  system  of  education.  Economic  efficiency  that 
is  secured  through  selfish  motives  is  a  menace  to  society; 
it  contains  within  itself  the  germs  of  discord  and  is  the 
prolific  mother  of  wars  and  bloodshed;  it  raises  up  capital 
against  labor,  and  nation  against  nation  in  fratricidal 
struggle. 

The  love  of  God  not  only  lifts  man's  mind  above  the 
earth  and  things  of  earth  and  unites  man  to  his  Maker, 
but  in  revealing  God  as  a  common  Father  it  opens  up  in 
man's  heart  a  well-spring  of  love  for  his  fellow-man  that 
extinguishes  the  fires  of  hate  and  brings  peace  and 
order  down  to  earth.  Obedience  to  the  will  of  God  is  the 
highest  norm  of  human  conduct  and  upon  it  rests  the 
demand  for  social  service.  We  are  not  left,  however,  to 
mere  inference  in  this  all-important  matter.  St.  John 
identifies  the  love  of  God  with  the  love  of  man  in  his  oft 
repeated  exhortation  to  the  faithful:  "Dearly  beloved, 
let  us  love  one  another,  for  charity  is  of  God.  And  every- 
one that  loveth,  is  born  of  God,  and  knoweth  God.  He 
that  loveth  not,  knoweth  not  God:  for  God  is  charity."1 

1  John  iv,  7. 


EDUCATION  FOR  SOCIAL  EFFICIENCY  233 

And  again,  "If  any  man  say,  I  love  God,  and  hateth  his 
brother;  he  is  a  liar.    For  he  that  loveth  not  his  brother, 
whom  he  seeth,  how  can  he  love  God,  whom  he  see th  not."1 
Our  Saviour  repeatedly  linked  together  hi  inseparable 
union  the  love  of  God  with  the  love  of  man.     In  the 
parable  hi  which  He  pictures  the  final  judgment,  the  love 
of  God  is  judged  by  its  fruitage  in  love  of  man:  "Then 
shall  the  King  say  to  them  that  shall  be  on  His  right  hand: 
Come,  ye  blessed  of  My  Father,  possess  you  the  kingdom 
prepared  for  you  from  the  foundation  of  the  world.     For 
I  was  hungry,  and  you  gave  me  to  eat;  I  was  thirsty,  and 
you  gave  Me  to  drink;  I  was  a  stranger,  and  you  took  me 
in :  Naked,  and  you  covered  Me :  Sick,  and  you  visited  Me : 
I  was  in  prison,  and  you  came  to  Me.     Then  shall  the  just 
answer  Him,  saying :  Lord,  when  did  we  see  Thee  hungry, 
and  fed  Thee;  thirsty,  and  gave  Thee  drink?    And  when 
did  we  see  Thee  a  stranger,  and  took  Thee  in?    Or  naked, 
and  covered  Thee?     Or  when  did  we  see  Thee  sick  or  in 
prison,  and  came  to  Thee?    And  the  King  answering, 
shall  say  to  them :  Amen  I  say  to  you,  as  long  as  you  did 
it  to  one  of  these  my  least  brethren,  you  did  it  to  Me."2 
In  these  pages  economic  efficiency  in  its  various  aspects 
extending  throughout  the  entire  educative  process  was 
considered  before  the  discussion  of  social  efficiency  as  an 
educative  aim,  but  in  practice  the  two  aims  cannot  be 
separated,  since  the  latter  must  supply  the  motive  for  the 
former.     Disinterested  love  and  not  selfishness  should  be 
made  to  govern  the  child's  actions  in  the  home  and  from 
his  earliest  days  in  school  to  his  graduation.     This  was 
one  of  the  guiding  principles  hi  the  preparation  of  the 
Catholic  Education  Series  of  elementary  text-books.    In 

1  John  iv,  20. 

'  Matt,  xxv,  34-40. 


234  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

one  of  the  earliest  lessons  of  the  First  Book  we  find  the 
following  passage  which  may  serve  to  illustrate  the  method 
employed: 

"Jesus  gives  the  secret  which  He  brought  from  heaven 
to  every  one  who  loves  Him.  When  we  learn  this  secret, 
we  love  one  another,  then  joy  grows  in  our  hearts  like  a 
beautiful  flower.  It  fills  our  lives  with  sweetness."  And 
on  the  following  page:  "The  children  play  and  sing  with 
their  mothers.  Some  of  them  pick  flowers  to  give  to  their 
fathers  when  they  come  home  from  work." 

It  is  necessary  indeed  that  our  children  be  educated  for 
economic  efficiency,  but  it  is  even  more  necessary  that  in 
this  process  proper  motivation  should  be  developed. 
Economic  efficiency,  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  edu- 
cative process,  must  be  sought  not  for  its  own  sake  nor  for 
selfish  aims.  Indeed,  this  aim  is  unattainable  in  any 
high  degree  unless  it  be  lifted  up  by  a  motive  that  trans- 
scends  the  industrial  world  and  the  mere  needs  of  man's 
physical  existence.  Moreover,  it  is  not  possible  to  de- 
velop in  the  child  economic  efficiency  first  and  after  this 
end  has  been  attained  to  begin  the  work  of  education  for 
higher  aims.  The  child's  nature  is  unitary.  His  unf olding 
life  is  complex  and  the  various  elements  in  it  unfold  simul- 
taneously. While  for  purposes  of  study  we  may  follow  one 
or  another  aspect  of  this  development  through  its  various 
stages  of  transformation,  the  fact  should  not  be  lost  sight 
of  that  while  these  transformations  are  actually  taking 
place  in  the  child,  a  many-sided  development  is  manifest- 
ing itself,  the  various  phases  of  which  are  linked  together 
in  close  interdependence. 

The  father  who  pays  his  child  for  the  performance  of 
little  personal  services  in  the  endeavor  to  train  him  for 
economic  efficiency  is  defeating  his  own  purpose  by  sup- 


EDUCATION  FOR  SOCIAL  EFFICIENCY  235 

plying  a  low  motive  for  the  child's  act.  The  child's  action 
should  spring  from  disinterested  love  of  his  father.  This 
love  will  grow  in  the  proportion  in  which  it  is  made  the 
motive  of  the  child's  activities.  When  personal  gain  is 
substituted  for  love  as  the  motive  of  the  child's  actions, 
seeds  are  sown  in  the  child's  heart  that  will  render  the  man 
incapable  of  effective  cooperation  with  his  fellow-man  even 
in  the  great  industrial  enterprises  which  constitute  so 
prominent  a  feature  of  our  present  civilization. 

The  school  may  be  expected  to  succeed  in  developing 
the  child  who  habitually  acts  from  motives  of  disinterested 
love  of  father  and  mother,  brothers  and  sisters  and  home 
into  the  man  who  is  animated  by  the  love  of  God  as  his 
Father  and  his  fellowman  as  his  brother,  into  the  man  who 
finds  his  own  success  in  the  success  of  his  fellow  workers, 
into  the  man  who  identifies  his  own  interests  with  the 
interests  of  his  employer.  The  training  for  economic 
efficiency  that  stops  short  of  this  fails  in  the  achievement 
of  the  end  which  justifies  us  in  including  economic  effi- 
ciency among  the  legitimate  aims  of  the  educative  process. 

In  the  training  for  economic  efficiency  given  in  the 
industrial  home  of  the  past  three  main  elements  may  be 
discerned. 

1.  The  child's  tasks  were  real,  not  formal.    The  thing 
that  was  done  was  worth  while.    It  counted  towards  the 
support  of  the  home  and  hence  a  real  interest  was  easily 
developed  and  maintained  and  this  interest  in  turn  called 
forth  a  proportionate  effort. 

2.  The  motive  for  the  labor  involved  and  the  efforts  put 
forth  sprang  from  love  of  parents  and  home  and  from  a 
strong   sense   of   solidarity   in   the   home   group.    This 
tended  to  purify  the  heart  of  the  child  and  to  strengthen 
and  develop  the  nobler  elements  of  his  nature. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

S.  Tasks  performed  under  the  compulsion  of  real 
interest  by  children  and  youths  animated  by  disinterested 
motives  were  effective  in  producing  skill. 

In  the  apprenticeship  system  the  apprentice  was  in 
many  respects  treated  like  a  son  and  a  strong  bond  of  per- 
sonal loyalty  frequently  grew  up  between  the  master  and  the 
apprentice  as  a  result  of  a  thousand  acts  of  personal 
kindness  from  the  master  and  reciprocal  loving  service 
by  the  apprentice.  "Though  there  were  individual  cases 
of  ill  treatment,  the  youth  received  a  fair  return  for  his 
labor  in  self  support  and  education,  and  the  guilds  took  it 
upon  themselves  to  supervise  the  relationship  between 
master  and  apprentice  and  to  prevent  abuse."  The 
elements  of  this  training  were  similar  to  those  of  the 
industrial  home  with  possibly  a  lessened  bond  of  love. 

When  the  monastic  schools  undertook  the  work  of 
training  for  the  arts  and  industries,  the  motivation  was 
lifted  to  a  higher  plane.  The  labor  was  performed  for 
love  of  God  and  fellow-man.  The  three  elements  of  the 
industrial  home  were  here  exalted.  The  love  of  earthly 
father  was  transformed  into  love  of  the  heavenly  Father 
and  the  love  of  brother  and  sister  and  of  members  of  the 
narrow  home  circle  reached  out  until  it  embraced  all  man- 
kind irrespective  of  race  or  creed  or  color.  The  work 
begun  here  culminated  in  the  building  of  the  medieval 
cathedrals,  every  stone  in  which  is  a  lasting  monument 
to  the  skill  and  the  high  motives  of  the  builders.  They 
labored,  architects  and  builders  alike,  not  for  personal 
gain  or  personal  renown  but  for  the  love  of  God  and  for 
the  glory  of  their  native  city. 

The  industrial  home,  the  apprenticeship  system  and  the 
monastic  industrial  schools  have  disappeared  in  the  pro- 
found economic  changes  brought  about  by  labor-saving 


EDUCATION  FOR  SOCIAL  EFFICIENCY  237 

machinery  and  factory  systems,  and  the  school  is  called 
upon  to  take  over  the  work  of  these  earlier  educational 
agencies.  In  the  assumption  of  this  new  burden  the  school 
is  confronted  with  many  grave  difficulties  and  many  un- 
solved problems  which  the  vocational  schools  of  today  are 
attempting  to  meet. 

In  the  days  when  the  child  received  a  valuable  sensory- 
motor  training  in  the  home  and  when  character  was  formed 
by  the  performance  of  home  tasks  and  the  bearing  of  ever- 
increasing  responsibilities,  the  school  habitually  confined 
itself  to  the  teaching  of  the  school  arts:  reading,  writing, 
ciphering,  grammar  and  a  few  facts  of  geography  and  his- 
tory. Today  there  is  a  growing  realization  of  the  futility 
of  this  work  unless  a  means  is  found  to  continue  the  funda- 
mental education  in  the  real  things  of  life  which  the  home 
is  no  longer  able  to  give.  Nor  can  we  count  on  vocational 
schools  for  older  pupils  to  do  this  work.  The  elementary 
school  must  face  the  task  in  spite  of  the  handicap  of  its 
own  traditions  and  in  spite  of  the  inadequate  means  at  its 
disposal  for  the  performance  of  a  task  for  which  it  was  not 
designed. 

The  school,  in  endeavoring  to  do  for  the  child  what  was 
done  for  him  in  the  industrial  home,  must,  of  course,  use 
other  means  and  must  seek  to  attain  the  same  ends  in 
other  ways,  but  whatever  means  and  methods  it  may 
employ,  it  must  under  penalty  of  grave  failure  awaken 
the  child's  interest  in  the  task  set  and  supply  adequate 
motives.  If  it  fails  hi  these  two  things,  it  will  fail  to 
impart  skill  in  a  high  degree  and  it  will  fail  to  socialize 
the  pupils  which,  after  all,  should  be  the  first  duty  of  the 
school  considered  as  a  social  agency. 

In  the  efforts  heretofore  made  in  this  direction  by  our 
schools  there  may  be  discerned  too  frequently  the  center* 


238  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

ing  of  attention  upon  the  effort  to  impart  skill  with  a 
neglect  to  attend  to  the  other  two  elements  of  the  process. 
When  the  manual  training  school  undertakes  to  teach  the 
pupil  how  to  use  a  plane,  how  to  use  a  chisel  or  a  saw  and 
how  to  make  a  joint,  it  is  hard  to  maintain  vital  interest. 
The  situation  is  in  no  way  comparable  to  that  of  the  indus- 
trial home  where  the  child  aided  in  making  an  article  of  per- 
manent value.  Proper  motivation  is  still  more  difficult 
in  the  manual  training  school.  It  is  true  that  we  may 
point  out  to  the  pupil  that  the  skill  acquired  in  these  exer- 
cises is  to  be  used  later  on  for  the  achievement  of  worthy 
results  and  as  a  means  of  gain,  either  for  himself  or  for  his 
family,  but  these  ends  are  too  remote  to  be  very  effective 
in  socializing  present  labor  or  clothing  it  with  interest. 

While  education  for  social  efficiency  demands,  in  the 
first  instance,  that  all  the  child's  efforts  in  the  direction  of 
bread-winning  should  receive  proper  motivation,  it 
demands  no  less  imperatively  that  the  child  be  taught 
effectively  that  society*  does  not  live  by  bread  alone  and 
that  it  is  a  duty  no  less  incumbent  on  each  individual  to 
contribute  to  the  higher  elements  of  social  life  than  to 
contribute  towards  its  material  prosperity. 

Under  the  social  and  economic  conditions  of  the  past 
the  school  and  the  formal  education  which  it  imparted 
reached  only  the  children  of  the  upper  classes.  The 
masses  for  the  most  part  were  taught  to  labor  in  the  home 
and  learned  the  great  spiritual  truths  necessary  to  their 
salvation  in  the  Church.  The  school  prepared  the  chil- 
dren of  the  upper  classes  for  leisure  and  for  the  learned 
professions.  With  the  rise  of  democracy  and  the  change 
from  a  tool  to  a  machine  civilization  the  scope  and  function 
of  the  school  have  been  indefinitely  widened.  Education 
is  no  longer  confined  to  the  classes  but  reaches  out  to  all 


EDUCATION   FOR   SOCIAL  EFFICIENCY  239 

the  children  of  the  nation.  Its  scope  is  no  longer  limited 
to  the  preparation  for  the  worthy  use  of  leisure  but  em- 
braces preparation  for  the  profitable  employment  of  labor. 
In  fact,  this  latter  extension  of  the  function  of  the  school 
has  been  so  much  emphasized  in  recent  years  that  there  is 
grave  danger  that  the  school  shall  forget  that  its  best 
fruitage  is  still  to  be  sought  in  the  preparation  of  the 
children  of  the  nation,  not  for  efficient  labor,  but  for  the 
right  use  of  leisure. 

With  each  advance  in  our  conquest  over  nature,  with 
each  new  force  that  is  harnessed  to  man's  service,  the 
hours  of  labor  for  the  masses  are  shortened  and  the  hours 
of  leisure  are  lengthened.  This  is  as  it  should  be  and  in 
it  lies  great  hope  for  the  future  of  mankind,  but  whether 
these  hopes  be  realized  or  not  will  depend  on  the  uses  to 
which  man  will  devote  his  hours  of  leisure  and  this  in 
turn  depends  upon  the  school's  efficiency  in  teaching  the 
children  of  the  masses  to  empoly  their  leisure  for  personal 
culture,  for  the  advancement  of  civilization  and  for  the 
promotion  of  the  higher  interests  of  mankind. 

The  school  may  be  excused  for  slow  progress  in  its 
attempt  to  train  for  economic  efficiency,  for  this  is  a  new 
task  to  which  it  has  not  yet  grown  accustomed.  It  is  a 
work  for  which  it  was  not  designed  and  for  the  per- 
formance of  which  it  has  scanty  and  inefficient  means  at 
its  disposal,  but  in  educating  for  the  proper  use  of  leisure 
the  case  is  otherwise.  This  is  the  work  for  which  the 
school  was  formed;  this  is  the  task  which  it  has  grown 
accustomed  to  discharge  through  centuries  of  service  and 
for  the  successful  performance  of  which  it  has  rich  re- 
sources at  its  disposal  such  as  are  not  possessed  by  any 
other  educative  agency  in  society. 

The   socializing   value   of  the   training   for   industrial 


240  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

efficiency  which  was  lost  in  great  measure  by  the  transfer 
of  industry  from  the  home  to  the  factory  and  by  the  as- 
sumption of  this  phase  of  education  by  other  agencies  than 
the  industrial  home,  should  be  compensated  for  by  the 
training  given  in  the  school  in  the  arts  of  right  living. 

The  school  should  train  the  children  to  beautify  the 
home  and  its  surroundings.  In  this  there  is  real  interest 
for  the  children,  there  are  real  things  to  be  done.  The 
cultivation  of  flowers,  the  trimming  and  adornment  of 
lawns,  planting  of  decorative  shrubbery,  may  all  be 
directed  by  the  school.  In  these  employments  the  chil- 
dren will  find  healthful  outdoor  exercise;  they  will  grow 
in  the  appreciation  of  the  beautiful  and  incidentally  they 
will  acquire  valuable  knowledge  that  will  prove  helpful  in 
the  solution  of  the  industrial  problems  of  later  life.  In  these 
occupations  of  the  children,  moreover,  the  home,  which 
has  been  weakened  by  the  loss  of  industrial  occupations, 
will  be  strengthened.  The  sense  of  solidarity  may  be 
here  regained  together  with  the  unselfish  motivation,  for 
all  that  the  child  does  in  these  respects  is  calculated  to 
yield  pleasure  to  the  parents  and  to  the  other  members  of 
the  home  group. 

Similarly,  the  training  which  the  children  receive  in  art, 
whether  in  the  modelling  of  clay,  the  cutting  and  folding 
of  paper,  in  drawing  and  painting,  in  the  designing  of 
costumes,  in  working  out  interior  decorations,  may  be 
directed  towards  the  improvement  and  the  adornment  of 
the  home.  This  line  of  work  may  be  made  to  yield 
results  not  inferior  to  decorative  gardening  in  their 
socializing  effect. 

The  cultivation  of  the  voice  in  speaking,  in  reading  and 
in  singing,  yields  immediate  pleasure  and  reacts  favorably 
upon  the  home.  From  this  beginning  the  child's  interest 


EDUCATION  FOR  SOCIAL  EFFICIENCY  241 

in  music  may  be  awakened  and  his  emotions  may  be 
developed  along  lines  which  will  lead  to  the  formation  of 
worthy  character.  Through  music,  love  for  God  and 
fellow-man  may  be  made  to  dominate  the  emotions  and 
passions  of  youth  and  home  may  be  made  a  center  from 
which  joy  and  culture  will  radiate  into  a  larger  social  circle. 
Literature  and  history  have  always  been  held  in  high 
esteem  because  of  their  socializing  value.  When  these 
subjects  are  properly  taught,  the  children  learn  to  admire 
and  to  imitate  other  models  than  the  captains  of  industry. 
They  come  to  appreciate  the  fact  that  the  sculptor,  the 
architect,  the  painter,  the  musician,  and  the  poet  confer 
greater  benefits  on  mankind  than  the  man  who  organizes 
sweatshops,  who  builds  skyscrapers,  or  who  hoards  up 
gold.  They  come  to  understand  in  tune  that  the  man  who, 
as  savant  or  discoverer,  as  writer  or  teacher,  brings  the 
great  truths  of  all  times  within  the  reach  of  the  struggling 
millions  is  the  real  benefactor  of  the  race,  and  that  beside 
him  stands  the  physician,  the  surgeon,  the  statesman  and 
the  saint.  Those  who  labor  for  material  gain  alone  sow 
the  seeds  of  discord  and  inflame  the  passions  of  lust  and 
greed  and  when  they  die  they  are  apt  to  be  followed,  not 
by  the  blessings  but  by  the  curses  of  their  fellow-men, 
whereas,  those  who  labor  for  the  higher  things  of  life 
bring  blessings  that  endure  and  leave  behind  them  a  mem- 
ory that  remains  a  benediction  ;o  all  mankind. 


CHAPTER  XV 
EDUCATION  FOR  INDIVIDUAL  CULTURE 

In  the  many  profound  changes  that  are  taking  place  in 
the  conduct  of  education,  in  response  to  the  deep-seated 
social  and  economic  changes  of  our  time,  there  is  danger 
that  the  individual  and  his  needs  be  lost  sight  of.  There 
is  deep  concern  that  the  individual  be  trained  to  economic 
efficiency  so  that  the  material  interests  of  society  may  be 
promoted  and  there  is  scarcely  less  concern  that  he 
be  educated  in  such  wise  that  his  life  and  energies 
may  minister  effectively  to  the  conduct  of  government 
and  the  welfare  of  society  in  its  various  aspects.  The 
individual  is  no  longer  left  to  his  own  resources  in  pro- 
curing an  education,  nor  is  the  father  any  longer  required 
to  bear  the  burden  of  educating  his  children.  Under 
these  circumstances,  it  is  natural  enough  that  the  education 
supplied  by  society  should  be  conducted  in  the  interests  of 
society,  nevertheless,  the  individual  has  an  indefeasible 
right  to  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  and  he 
has  a  corresponding  claim  upon  existing  educational 
agencies  to  aid  him  in  securing  these  ends. 

Christianity,  while  acting  as  a  great  socializing  agency, 
has  never  lost  sight  of  the  individual  or  of  his  claims.  In 
her  teaching  each  individual  has  an  immortal  soul  which 
must  be  saved  and  which  must  discharge  its  duties 
towards  God  and  fellow-man.  In  the  discharge  of  these 
primal  duties,  the  individual  needs  the  help  that  educa- 
tion is  designed  to  give  and  while  he  is  bound  to 
love  his  neighbor,  this  love  of  neighbor  does  not  blot 
out  his  personal  claim  to  life,  liberty  and  happiness 
here  or  to  eternal  well-being  hereafter. 
Mf 


EDUCATION  FOR  INDIVIDUAL  CULTURE  243 

In  considering  the  aims  of  education,  therefore,  edu- 
cating for  complete  living  must  be  assigned  an  important 
place,  nor  must  this  phrase,  complete  living,  be  taken  in 
so  wide  a  sense  that  the  individual's  interests  are  merged 
in  the  social  claim.  Society,  after  all,  is  composed  of 
individuals  and  its  level  of  culture  and  refinement  depends 
upon  the  culture  and  refinement  of  the  aggregate  of  its 
members.  The  quality  of  culture  should,  therefore,  be 
imparted  to  the  individual,  or  developed  in  him,  in  the 
first  place,  because  of  the  benediction  which  it  brings  to 
him,  and  in  the  second  place,  because  of  the  many 
blessings  which  it  is  calculated  to  bring  to  society. 
This  truth  is  in  danger  of  being  obscured  by  current  read- 
justments in  educational  theory  and  practice. 

Among  the  many  changes  in  our  concept  of  education 
during  the  past  few  decades  may  be  noted,  in  the  first 
place,  a  change  in  the  value  placed  upon  knowledge.  We 
turn  today  to  digests  and  encyclopedias  for  informa- 
tion. Man's  memory  was  a  valuable  storehouse  in  the 
days  when  books  were  scarce  and  difficult  of  access 
and  in  the  still  earlier  times  when  oral  tradition  was  the 
only  available  means  of  passing  on  the  wisdom  of  the  ages. 
Today  the  memory  is  valued  as  a  means  of  holding  truth 
in  the  mind  during  the  brief  period  necessary  for  its 
assimilation.  The  excellence  of  the  teacher's  work  as 
determined  at  the  end  of  the  school  period  is  no  longer  the 
amount  of  knowledge  which  the  student  has  committed  to 
memory  but  the  development  of  the  student's  powers  and 
faculties  and  his  mastery  of  the  art  of  study  and  of  the 
utilization  of  knowledge. 

As  a  result  of  the  rapid  development  of  biological  and 
psychological  science,  the  center  of  orientation  in  all 
educational  endeavor  has  been  transferred  from  the  logical 


244  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

basis  of  the  body  of  truth  to  be  imparted  to  the  growing 
mental  capacity  of  the  pupil.  The  teacher  has  practically 
ceased  to  rely  upon  the  tabulation  of  knowledge  and  the 
memorizing  of  formulae  and  directs  his  endeavors  to  free- 
ing the  pupil's  powers  and  to  the  development  of  his 
self-reliance.  Nevertheless,  the  content  of  the  curriculum 
rather  than  formal  discipline  is  the  end  sought,  but  the 
content  is  valued,  not  for  its  own  sake,  but  as  food  and 
direction  to  a  growing  and  developing  life.  The  effort 
is  being  made  to  cultivate  the  pupil's  powers  of  observa- 
tion and  reason  by  their  employment  in  consecutive 
lines  leading  to  definite  results.  Hence,  objective  and 
laboratory  methods  are  everywhere  taking  the  place  of 
drills  and  tables  and  grammatical  forms. 

The  rapid  development  of  the  natural  sciences  and  their 
manifold  applications  to  the  business  of  life  have  served  to 
bring  about  an  era  of  extreme  specialization  in  adult 
employment.  This  has  reacted  on  the  school  in  such  a 
way  as  to  cause  great  difficulty  in  equipping  the  pupil 
with  the  intensive  knowledge  demanded  for  his  special 
work  in  life  without  sacrificing  to  this  his  breadth  of  view 
and  his  ability  to  profit  by  the  labor  of  the  multitudes  who 
are  working  in  other  fields.  The  worst  feature  of  this 
movement  is  to  be  found  in  early  specialization  before 
broad  culture  has  been  attained. 

In  practice  it  may  be  noted  that  according  as  emphasis 
is  unduly  laid  on  the  need  of  culture  or  the  need  of  speciali- 
zation the  pupil  is  rendered  either  superficial  or  narrow. 
It  is  not  easy  to  hold  an  even  balance  between  these  two 
elements,  particularly  in  the  schools  which  receive  pupils 
from  every  walk  of  life  and  from  which  pupils  depart  at 
several  stages  of  the  educative  process.  Even  where  the 
school  deals  with  the  children  of  the  favored  classes  who 


EDUCATION  FOB  INDIVIDUAL  CULTUBE  245 

may  hope  to  benefit  by  the  full  extent  of  the  educational 
courses  offered,  the  difficulty  of  preserving  balance  be- 
tween culture  and  specialization  is  not  absent.  Today 
the  work  of  productive  scholarship  can  be  performed  only 
within  the  limits  of  a  narrow  specialty  but  even  here  a 
broad  basis  of  receptive  scholarship  is  necessary  to  all 
worthy  achievement. 

If  it  be  considered  the  sole  function  of  education  to 
develop  the  technical  expert,  the  man  who  can  deal  effect- 
ively with  some  one  phase  of  thought  or  of  work  irre- 
spective of  the  effect  such  a  training  may  have  upon  his 
own  life  and  character,  then  the  emphasis  should  fall  upon 
the  intensive  side  of  the  process.  Everything  will  be 
sacrificed  which  does  not  directly  contribute  to  his  power 
in  his  chosen  field  of  activity.  On  the  other  hand,  if  we 
hold  the  chief  function  of  education  to  be  the  development 
of  the  individual  in  such  wise  that  life  may  yield  the 
greatest  possible  amount  of  joy  and  happiness  to  him  and 
through  him  to  the  social  group  in  which  he  lives,  then 
the  emphasis  should  fall  on  the  receptive  and  broader 
phases  of  the  educative  process.  To  those  who  believe  that 
education  is  for  life  rather  than  for  the  conquest  of  nature 
and  the  attainment  of  industrial  supremacy,  the  develop- 
ment of  the  mere  specialist  will  always  appear  to  be  a 
failure. 

While  there  is  general  rejoicing  in  the  scientific  achieve- 
ments of  the  past  half  century,  there  are  not  wanting 
among  us  those  who  find  a  growing  tendency  towards 
materialism  in  the  educational  trend  of  today.  Should 
these  fears  prove  prophetic,  the  loss  will  be  obviously 
greater  than  the  gain  both  to  the  individual  and  to  society. 
It  can  scarcely  be  questioned  that  there  does  exist  a 
tendency  towards  materialism  in  premature  vocational 


£46  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

training  and  in  other  forms  of  early  and  extreme  speciali- 
zation. 

It  is  unquestionably  the  business  of  education  to  seek  a 
remedy  for  the  materialistic  tendencies  of  the  times. 
While  there  is  general  agreement  as  to  this  necessity,  there 
is  naturally  a  divergence  of  view  concerning  the  direction 
in  which  remedy  should  be  sought.  Some  seek  it  in  a 
larger  infusion  of  the  so-called  culture  subjects  into  the 
curriculum.  Poetry  and  music,  literature  and  art,  are 
admittedly  valuable  correctives  and  to  some  they  seem 
sufficient.  Others,  with  perhaps  more  justice,  while 
admitting  the  value  of  the  culture  subjects  in  checking 
materialistic  tendencies,  seek  for  the  effective  antidote  in 
the  teaching  of  positive  religion,  while  still  others  seek  the 
source  of  culture,  not  so  much  in  the  subject  matter  of  the 
curriculum  as  in  the  method  of  study  employed,  and  they 
seek  the  remedy  for  materialism,  not  so  much  in  a  definite 
set  of  religious  tenets  as  in  the  way  in  which  all  truth  is 
held  in  the  mind.  It  is  pointed  out  that  one  may  be  a 
past-master  in  physics,  chemisty  or  biology  and  still  have 
little  more  claim  to  culture  or  to  a  liberal  education  than 
that  possessed  by  a  stonecutter  or  a  blacksmith.  Culture, 
indeed,  consists  not  in  the  knowledge  of  any  one  subject 
nor  in  the  ability  to  do  any  one  thing,  however  valuable 
such  knowledge  or  ability  may  be,  but  in  the  power  to 
understand  the  thought  and  to  sympathize  with  the  work 
of  all  who  labor  for  the  upbuilding  of  mankind. 

Culture  is  manifested  by  the  quality  or  fiber  of  the  mind 
rather  than  by  its  content;  consequently,  the  educational 
tendencies  which  make  for  a  development  of  power  rather 
than  the  accumulation  of  knowledge  lead  us  to  seek  culture 
not  so  much  in  erudition  as  in  a  group  of  serviceable  social 
qualities. 


EDUCATION  FOR  INDIVIDUAL  CULTURE  247 

Culture  always  implies  a  certain  breadth  of  view.  A 
man  who  is  ignorant  of  everything  outside  of  his  own 
narrow  specialty,  who  can  talk  intelligently  on  this  sub- 
ject only,  and  who  brings  neither  understanding  or  sym- 
pathy to  the  discussion  of  any  other  topic,  may  be  able  to 
do  good  work  in  his  chosen  line  but  there  are  few  who  would 
call  him  cultured.  He  may  be  an  effective  cog  in  a  ma- 
chine which  grinds  out  truth,  subjugates  nature,  and 
builds  up  vast  fortunes,  but  as  a  social  entity  his  value  is 
low,  and  his  individual  culture  and  capacity  for  pure 
enjoyment  is  still  lower.  His  mind,  cut  off,  for  the  most 
part,  from  the  outlying  fields  of  truth,  becomes  warped  and 
narrowed;  no  one  should  be  surprised  to  find  him  degen- 
erating into  a  materialist;  he  may,  indeed,  possess  genius 
of  a  certain  order,  but,  if  so,  it  is  a  genius  that  lies  very 
close  to  insanity. 

Culture,  however,  does  not  preclude  specialization.  On 
the  contrary,  the  man  who  is  productive  in  one  department 
of  scholarship  will  find  in  this  circumstance  a  help  to  the 
understanding  of  the  work  done  in  other  fields.  While  a 
cultured  man  should  know  something  about  everything 
and  everything  about  something,  nevertheless,  culture  is 
not  directly  concerned  with  productive  scholarship;  its 
home  is  in  the  receptivity  of  the  mind. 

Through  productive  scholarship,  man  communicates  to 
the  race  the  results  of  his  own  work;  through  receptive 
scholarship  he  is  enabled  to  profit  by  the  labors 
of  all  mankind.  Culture  requires  some  knowledge  of  a 
variety  of  subjects  and  the  broader  the  range  of  these 
subjects,  the  broader  will  be  the  culture,  but  this  is  not  the 
whole  of  culture.  A  knowledge  of  the  elements  of  forty 
different  sciences  would  not  necessarily  produce  culture, 
which  is  primarily  a  quality  of  the  mind,  and  it  is  measured 


248  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

by  the  correlation  of  thought  rather  than  by  the  thought 
itself.  To  the  narrow  specialist,  the  value  of  any  state- 
ment lies  in  the  definite  picture  of  the  thing  signified 
which  arises  in  his  mind;  to  the  man  of  culture  the  chief 
value  of  the  same  statement  is  found  in  the  multitude  of 
associated  pictures  which  it  calls  up  in  his  mind. 

The  production  of  materialism  instead  of  culture, 
however,  is  not  confined  to  the  schools  in  which  specialists 
are  trained.  The  seeds  of  narrowness  and  materialism 
are  sometimes  sown  in  the  early  years  of  school  life  which 
nature  ordained  as  the  time  in  which  the  broad  foundations 
of  culture  should  be  laid.  The  difference  between  the 
education  that  results  in  culture  and  the  training  that 
leads  to  materialism  may  be  observed  in  the  pupil  of  a 
high  school  quite  as  often  as  in  the  graduate  of  a  uni- 
versity or  of  a  technical  school.  It  manifests  itself  in  the 
way  in  which  literature  and  art  are  studied,  no  less  than 
in  the  study  of  the  physical  sciences.  In  the  one  case, 
the  mind  rests  on  the  material  and  the  concrete;  in  the 
other,  it  is  carried  out  into  ever- widening  fields  of  truth 
and  relationships.  The  former  attitude  of  mind  logically 
develops  into  that  of  the  materialist;  in  the  latter  case  the 
forces  at  work  tend  to  carry  the  mind  out  beyond  the 
realm  of  matter  into  a  region  where  it  will  find  no  resting 
place  until  it  rests  in  God,  the  Source  of  all  truth  and  of  all 
being. 

Culture,  in  this  sense,  demands  a  wide  range  of  knowl- 
edge, but  it  demands  still  more  imperatively  that  all 
knowledge  taken  into  the  mind  be  incorporated  into  its 
life,  that  the  mind  be  not  rendered  a  mere  passive  recep- 
tacle for  truth,  but  a  living,  acting  organism,  every  fiber 
of  which  responds  to  each  new  truth  with  which  it  comes 
in  contact. 


EDUCATION  FOR  INDIVIDUAL  CULTURE  249 

Culture,  therefore,  demands  a  wide  range  of  knowledge 
covering  the  fields  of  religion,  of  philosophy,  of  science,  of 
literature  and  art,  which  form  the  groundwork  of  our 
civilization;  and  it  demands  that  this  knowledge  be  held 'in 
the  mind,  not  as  a  series  of  discreet  entities,  but  as  one 
living  correlated  whole. 

Moreover,  culture  connotes  a  training  that  imparts  a 
high  degree  of  sensitiveness  and  a  ready  control  of  the 
mental  powers;  the  mind  must  be  able  to  turn  instantly 
from  subject  to  subject  as  the  necessity  of  the  social  situa- 
tion demands.  The  cultured  man  is  keenly  sensitive  to 
the  play  of  thought  and  feeling  in  the  social  group  in  which 
he  moves  and  he  responds  to  it  without  apparent  effort. 
However  indispensable  concentrated  attention  may  be  in 
order  to  reach  the  solution  of  any  problem  of  present 
interest,  culture  demands  the  added  power  of  shifting  the 
attention  with  ease  and  grace  from  topic  to  topic  so  as  to 
meet  the  social  situation  and  yield  pleasure  and  profit  to 
the  group. 

While,  therefore,  the  benefit  of  the  individual  should  be 
taken  into  account  in  educating  for  culture,  it  is  evident 
that  the  individual's  highest  pleasure  and  his  greatest 
benefit  is  to  be  found  in  giving  to  others  freely  of  the 
treasures  which  individual  efforts  have  secured. 

We  have  thus  found  on  the  cognitive  side  of  mental  life 
four  of  the  essential  elements  of  culture:  (l)  a  reasonably 
wide  knowledge;  (2)  a  thoroughly  coordinated  knowledge; 
(3)  a  ready  and  easy  control  of  the  knowledge  possessed; 
and  (4)  the  habitual  use  of  knowledge  and  mental  power 
to  meet  the  demands  of  an  ever-changing  social  environ- 
ment. But  these  four  elements  are  far  from  constituting 
the  sum-total  of  culture.  We  would,  indeed,  not  be  far 
from  the  truth  were  we  to  deny  to  each  of  them  a  place 


£50  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

among  the  chief  factors  of  culture.  Culture  demands,  in 
addition  to  these  elements,  a  reasonable  development  of 
the  aesthetic  faculty  and  a  normal  development  and 
control  of  the  emotions. 

The  cultured  man  may  be  neither  an  architect  nor  a 
sculptor;  he  may  neither  be  able  to  write  poetry  nor  to 
paint  pictures;  but  he  must  have  an  appreciation  of  the 
beautiful.  We  are  far  from  denying  the  social  advantages 
of  "the  accomplishments";  the  ability  to  thrill  the  souls 
of  others  by  music  or  song;  the  power  to  delight  the  eye 
by  the  products  of  chisel  or  brush;  to  know  how  to  dance 
gracefully  or  to  charm  by  perfect  manners,  are  gifts  for 
which  anyone  should  feel  grateful,  but  they  do  not  con- 
stitute the  essential  elements  of  culture.  Without  being 
able  to  do  any  of  these  things  it  is  quite  possible  to  have 
the  aesthetic  faculty  highly  cultivated  and  to  recognize 
beauty  and  thrill  to  it  wherever  it  is  found  in  nature,  in 
art  or  in  perfect  manners. 

Viewed  from  its  emotional  aspect,  culture  demands  a 
reasonable  development  and  a  complete  control  of  all  the 
emotions.  No  matter  what  a  man's  endowments  may  be 
in  other  respects,  if  he  be  wanting  in  a  keen  and  ready 
sympathy  for  the  feelings,  the  emotions,  and  the  attitudes 
of  those  who  surround  him,  he  cannot  be  considered  cul- 
tured, and  unless  the  feelings  and  emotions  are  cultivated 
in  himself  he  cannot  sympathize  with  them  in  others. 

It  is,  in  fact,  in  the  control  of  the  emotions  that  culture 
finds  its  severest  test.  In  the  savage  and  in  the  uncul- 
tured man  any  unusual  intensity  in  the  emotional  stimulus 
causes  an  immediate  explosion  which  often  works  as 
much  injury  to  the  individual  himself  as  it  does  to  those 
against  whom  the  explosion  is  directed.  The  undesira- 
bility  of  such  a  man  in  society  is  at  once  apparent. 


EDUCATION  FOR  INDIVIDUAL  CULTURE  251 

In  the  emotions  lies  the  well-spring  of  all  the  strength 
and  energy  of  character.  This  energy  is  one  of  the  most 
precious  things  in  life  and  it  is  precisely  the  function  of 
culture  to  develop  the  conscious  mechanism  in  such  a 
way  as  to  husband  it  and  to  direct  it  efficiently  towards 
the  accomplishment  of  the  desired  ends  of  civilized  life. 
The  degree  of  perfection  in  which  this  mechanism  is 
developed  furnishes  one  of  the  best  standards  by  which  to 
judge  the  quality  of  culture  in  any  individual. 

The  cultured  man  does  not  willingly  expose  himself  to 
the  shock  incident  to  contact  with  the  rude,  but  if  unto- 
ward circumstances  betray  him  into  such  a  situation,  he 
will  know  how  to  control  himself  so  as  to  avoid  a  scene. 
The  consciousness  of  this  perfect  self -control  contributes 
largely  to  that  unconsciousness  of  self  which  is  one  of  the 
most  obvious  traits  of  the  cultured  man. 

There  is  a  type  of  conceit  that  marks  the  braggart,  and 
bears  palpable  evidence  of  his  lack  of  culture.  There  is  a 
self-consciousness  sometimes  linked  with  conceit,  which, 
with  almost  equal  certainty,  marks  the  absence  of  culture 
in  many  persons  who  believe  themselves  to  be  possessed  of 
exceptional  advantages,  either  in  the  extent  or  quality  of 
then-  erudition,  in  their  beauty  of  face  or  figure,  in  their 
elegance  of  dress,  or  in  their  social  position.  This  species  of 
self -consciousness  is  the  most  obvious  constituent  of  the 
vulgarity  of  the  nouveau  riche;  it  is  also  characteristic  of 
the  silly  and  the  superficial. 

Self -consciousness  without  conceit  may  often  be  found 
in  souls  possessing  much  refinement  and  many  of  the 
essential  elements  of  culture.  In  such  cases,  however, 
the  quality  of  culture  is  not  in  control;  the  self -conscious- 
ness dominates  and  is  fatal  to  poise  of  character  and  proves 
to  be  a  prolific  source  of  pain,  both  to  the  individuals 
themselves  and  to  those  with  whom  they  associate. 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

Culture  demands  a  certain  type  of  conceit;  a  conceit 
which  enables  a  man  to  take  himself  supremely  for  granted 
and  for  this  very  reason  banishes  all  consciousness  of  self. 
Such  a  man  relies  on  himself  implicitly;  he  knows  from 
experience  that  he  is  not  likely  to  be  betrayed  into  saying 
or  doing  anything  that  would  leave  him  open  to  the  criti- 
cism of  his  associates.  His  mind  is  turned  away  from 
self  and  for  this  reason  it  is  keenly  alert  to  the  actions, 
thoughts  and  feelings  of  his  companions.  It  is  for  this 
reason,  too,  that  he  is  always  in  a  position  to  deal  effect- 
ively with  any  social  emergency  that  may  arise.  He 
listens  where  he  should  listen; he  is  always  ready  to  divert 
attention  from  any  awkward  situation  at  the  proper 
moment. 

The  conceit  of  the  cultured  man  contributes  in  no  small 
degree  to  the  pleasure  and  to  the  feeling  of  security  which 
is  experienced  in  associating  with  him.  His  keen  sym- 
pathy enables  him  to  discover  at  once  when  he  is  not 
wanted  and  his  acquaintances  are  thus  saved  the  awk- 
wardness of  keeping  him  at  a  distance.  On  the  other 
hand,  his  complete  confidence  in  himself  keeps  him  from 
taking  offense  when  offense  is  not  intended. 

It  is  difficult  to  associate  with  the  self-conscious  without 
giving  unintentional  offense;  their  eyes  are  constantly  on 
themselves,  and  they  are  forever  looking  for  slights  in 
what  is  said  and  in  what  is  left  unsaid,  in  what  is  done  and 
in  what  is  left  undone.  The  pleasure  that  their  company 
might  otherwise  give  is  often  neutralized  by  the  extreme 
care  which  must  be  taken  in  order  to  avoid  wounding 
their  over-developed  susceptibilities. 

The  cultured  man,  when  with  his  friends,  interprets 
everything  that  is  said  and  done  in  its  best  sense,  and  even 
though  the  word  or  the  deed  might  readily  bear  another 
interpretation,  this  instead  of  wounding,  serves  to  amuse 


EDUCATION  FOR  INDIVIDUAL  CULTURE  253 

him,  for  he  realizes  the  unintentional  character  of  the 
blunder  and,  what  is  more  important,  he  responds  to  the 
call  for  the  exercise  of  his  tact.  His  presence,  conse- 
quently, tends  to  banish  restraint  and  self-consciousness 
in  those  with  whom  he  associates.  By  putting  everyone 
at  ease,  he  adds  largely  to  the  joy  of  social  intercourse, 
even  when  he  contributes  but  little  in  any  direct  way  to 
the  entertainment  or  the  conversation. 

The  term  "culture"  has  come  to  be  used  in  various 
senses  and  to  be  clothed  in  many  shades  of  meaning. 
Thus  we  speak  of  physical  culture,  of  intellectual  culture, 
of  moral  culture,  and  of  social  culture,  but  there  is  still 
another  and  a  larger  sense  of  the  word,  a  sense  in 
which  all  culture  is  resumed.  In  this  sense  it  means  the 
symmetrical  development  and  the  perfect  control  of  all 
the  powers  and  faculties  of  the  individual.  Through 
its  agency,  all  the  resources  of  individual  life,  phy- 
sical, social,  intellectual,  moral  and  religious,  are 
utilized  to  the  fullest  extent  for  the  happiness  of  the 
individual  and  the  enrichment  of  his  life  as  well  as  for  the 
happiness  and  well-being  of  the  social  group.  Whether, 
therefore,  we  consider  the  good  of  the  individual  or  the 
good  of  society  in  the  conduct  of  the  educational  process, 
we  must  hold  as  one  of  the  chief  aims  of  our  educational 
endeavor  the  production  of  individual  culture.  This 
culture,  however,  cannot  be  produced  in  the  individual 
unless  the  broader  aim  of  social  well-being  be  kept  con- 
stantly in  the  foreground. 

It  is  evident  that  culture  such  as  we  are  here  con- 
sidering is  not  and  cannot  be  made  a  mere  addition  to 
life,  or  a  superficial  polish,  or  the  development  of  any  one 
set  of  powers.  It  is  a  quality  affecting  the  whole  of  life: 
it  permeates  the  profoundest  depths  of  character;  it 


254  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

lends  finish  and  perfection  to  manner;  it  leads  man  into 
the  unreserved  giving  of  himself  to  the  service  of  his 
Maker  and  to  the  good  of  his  fellow-man. 

Thoughtless  people  not  infrequently  mistake  for  culture 
a  certain  superficial  polish  which  may  be  imparted  to 
mind  and  character  after  the  process  of  education  has  been 
substantially  completed.  Acting  under  this  mistaken 
idea  of  culture,  parents  sometimes  send  their  daughters 
to  a  finishing  school  or  give  their  boys  a  year's  travel. 
Without  undervaluing  either  of  these  means  of  producing 
culture,  it  should  be  insisted  upon  that  culture  is  some- 
thing deeper  than  this;  that  it  sends  its  roots  into  the 
very  depths  of  both  mind  and  heart  and  that  it  is  hi  itself 
as  truly  a  conscious  growth  as  any  that  may  be  found  in 
the  intellect,  in  the  will,  or  in  character. 

To  produce  genuine  culture,  therefore,  we  must  begin 
at  the  very  beginning  of  the  educative  process  and  never 
cease  our  endeavors  until  the  work  of  education  has 
received  its  last  finishing  touch.  There  is  no  day  in  the 
child's  life  in  which  he  should  not  be  helped  to  grow  in 
culture;  there  is  no  subject  that  he  studies  in  which  this 
end  should  not  be  kept  in  view;  there  is  no  discipline  to 
which  he  may  be  subjected  in  which  the  effect  of  such 
discipline  on  his  culture  should  not  be  among  our  chief 
considerations. 

While  we  must  aim,  therefore,  at  individual  culture 
throughout  the  entire  educative  process,  this  aim  can 
never  be  isolated.  Whatever  tends  to  produce  culture 
will,  at  the  same  time,  tend  to  affect  the  growing  and 
developing  mind  of  the  child  in  many  other  important 
respects.  When,  however,  the  mind  is  so  trained  as  to 
result  in  culture,  it  is  trained  hi  large  measure  along 
many  other  most  desirable  lines.  When  the  educative 


EDUCATION  FOR  INDIVIDUAL  CULTURE  255 

process  is  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  culture,  a  number 
of  secondary  aims  come  into  view. 

To  attain  culture,  the  pupil's  knowledge  should  be 
thoroughly  coordinated  as  he  receives  it.  The  child  must 
be  taught  from  the  beginning  of  his  work  in  school  to 
turn  his  mind  quickly  and  completely  from  topic  to  topic. 
He  should  never  be  corrected  in  such  a  way  as  to  develop 
self -consciousness,  nor  should  he  ever  be  exposed  to  ridicule 
or  sarcasm,  which,  more  effectively,  perhaps,  than  anything 
else  that  is  likely  to  occur  in  the  school,  tends  to  develop 
an  undesirable  self-consciousness.  From  his  earliest 
childhood,  he  should  be  taught  self-forgetfulness  and  a 
ready  sympathy  with  o.thers,  nor  can  we  begin  at  too  early 
a  date  to  give  him  a  realization  of  the  value  of  self-control 
under  all  circumstances.  He  should  be  taught  that  an 
appreciation  of  the  beautiful  in  nature  and  in  art  is  of 
quite  as  much  value  as  is  the  ability  to  write  books  or  to 
build  houses.  Where  a  training  of  this  kind  has  been 
given  to  the  child  and  to  the  youth,  finishing  schools  and 
travel  will  impart  their  full  meed  of  benefit  in  rounding 
out  and  in  completing  an  education  that  not  only  fits  him 
for  effective  work  in  his  chosen  field  of  action,  but  also 
prepares  him  for  life  hi  the  fullest  sense  of  the  term. 

In  the  older  social  and  economic  conditions,  the  children 
of  the  upper  classes  alone  were  given  a  training  for  the 
express  purpose  of  producing  culture,  and  today,  even 
in  our  democratic  society,  this  ancient  view  sometimes 
finds  expression.  Secondary  and  higher  education  still 
have  an  inherited  tendency  to  meet  the  needs  of  a  leisure 
class  and  the  disciplines  are  accordingly  designed,  in 
many  instances,  for  the  production  of  culture,  while  our 
elementary  schools,  manual  training  and  vocational 
schools,  are  frequently  thought  of  as  appropriate  schools 


256  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

for  the  masses  in  which  the  children  should  be  taught  only 
those  things  which  may  prove  useful  in  the  ever-present 
struggle  for  material  gain. 

Viewed  in  the  light  of  modern  psychology,  the  culture 
development  that  begins  with  adolescence  is  likely  to  lack 
depth  and  sincerity  and  the  resultant  culture  is  likely  to 
be  apparent  rather  than  real.  No  amount  of  study  of 
Latin  or  Greek  or  Mathematics  will,  of  itself,  turn  a 
vulgar,  savage  youth  into  a  cultured  man.  If,  therefore, 
the  children  of  our  wealthy  citizens  are  to  acquire  culture 
through  the  school,  the  process  must  begin,  not  in  the 
secondary  school,  but  in  the  primary  grades  of  the  ele- 
mentary school. 

The  educational  aim  in  a  democracy  should  be  the 
highest  good  of  all  the  people.  Every  hidden  resource  of 
power  and  uplift  in  the  nature  of  the  child,  whether  of  the 
rich  or  the  poor,  should  be  developed  and  made  to  yield 
its  blessings  for  all  the  people.  The  good  of  society 
demands  that  culture  spread  throughout  the  entire  social 
body  and,  in  these  days  of  lengthening  leisure  for  the 
toiling  masses,  an  effective  culture  which  will  turn  leisure 
hours  to  individual  and  social  betterment  and  happiness 
is  urgently  demanded. 

If  the  production  of  culture  were  bound  up  with  the  teach- 
ing of  the  classics  and  unattainable  in  any  other  way,  it 
would,  of  course,  be  necessary  to  abandon  all  hope  of 
producing  culture  in  the  masses  through  our  educational 
endeavors,  but  there  is  a  growing  realization  among 
educators  that  any  valuable  educational  material  may,  if 
properly  handled,  be  made  to  produce  choice  fruits  of 
culture.  The  sciences  and  the  practical  arts  which  are  so 
imperatively  demanded  by  our  present  industrial  and 
economic  conditions,  may  be  made  to  yield  a  fruitage  of 


EDUCATION  FOR  INDIVIDUAL  CULTURE  257 

culture  not  less  choice  than  that  produced  by  the  grammar 
drills  which  formed  the  staple  of  the  secondary  training 
given  in  the  avowedly  cultural  schools  of  the  past.  And 
even  when  the  classics  are  taught,  as  they  should  be 
taught,  so  as  to  bring  the  child  into  vital  relationship  with 
the  civilization  which  produced  them,  then*  cultural  value 
is  not  necessarily  higher  than  that  which  may  be  attained 
through  other  sources  which  should  be  within  the  reach 
of  our  children  in  the  elementary  schools. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
EDUCATION  FOR  CITIZENSHIP 

There  exists  today,  as  there  always  has  existed,  a  wide 
divergence  of  view  among  political  thinkers  concerning 
the  nature  and  functions  of  the  state.  In  the  education 
that  fits  for  citizenship  there  will  naturally  be  found  a 
similar  want  of  uniformity.  Until  we  determine  the 
nature  and  functions  of  the  state  in  any  given  country, 
it  will  not  be  possible  to  determine  the  nature  of  the  edu- 
cation that  should  be  given  to  the  children  of  the  people 
to  prepare  them  for  citizenship.  It  is  scarcely  to  be  hoped 
that  a  system  of  education  could  be  devised  which  would 
be  so  plastic  as  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  state  as 
conceived  of  by  Bismarck  and  Windhorst,  by  Babel  and 
von  Sturm,  by  Locke,  Homboldt  and  Hobbes. 

Hobbes  believed  the  state  to  be  omnipotent.  In  his 
political  philosophy  the  state  gave  validity  to  all  laws, 
sanction  to  all  religions,  and  retained  the  ownership  of  all 
property.  An  education  that  would  prepare  for  citizen- 
ship in  this  state  would  unfit  for  citizenship  in  the  state 
as  Locke  conceived  it.  He  opposed  natural  law  and  the 
law  of  humanity  to  the  laws  of  the  statute  book  and 
proclaimed  the  right  of  the  individual  to  resist  any  state 
measure  which  aimed  at  doing  more  than  to  protect  life, 
liberty  and  property.  Humboldt  denied  the  state  the 
right  to  do  anything  looking  towards  the  material  welfare 
of  the  citizen  and  he  consequently  denied  to  the  state  the 
right  to  educate  its  future  citizens  and  the  right  to  make 
any  provision  for  education. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Treitschke,  who  is  not 
without  disciples  in  many  countries  at  the  present  day, 

258 


EDUCATION  FOR  CITIZENSHIP  259 

believed  that  the  mass  of  the  people  should  be  kept  in  a 
low  state  of  intellectual  development,  to  the  end  that 
toilers  may  not  be  wanting  and  that  an  intellectual  aris- 
tocracy may  have  leisure  to  think  and  work  for  the  good 
of  the  country,  the  demand  for  universal  education  has 
become  general  in  Christian  states. 

The  Christian  socialists  of  England,  while  not  indulging 
in  the  extreme  view  which  maintains  that  the  tramp  and 
the  illiterate  should  have  equal  power  in  shaping  the 
destinies  of  the  nation  with  men  of  virtue  and  culture, 
hold  that  the  equality  which  should  be  maintained  con- 
sists in  equal  possibilities  for  all  men  to  develop  their 
capacities  and  talents.  They  hold  that  the  individual 
must  be  lifted  above  prejudice  before  commercial  or 
political  freedom  can  benefit  him;  they  demand  in  each 
citizen  who  has  a  voice  in  shaping  the  destiny  of  the  state 
a  largeness  of  outlook  and  a  self-control  which  will  extend 
all  the  privilieges  of  fraternity  even  to  those  who  hold 
opinions  opposite  to  then*  own.  To  maintain  a  citizen- 
ship of  this  character,  universal  education  is  obviously 
necessary. 

History  abundantly  supports  the  statement  that  the 
destiny  of  the  state  is  intimately  bound  up  with  the 
education  of  the  citizen.  Plato  held  that  no  state  can 
thrive  which  does  not  unceasingly  endeavor  to  improve 
the  individuals  who  constitute  it,  and  he  naturally  at- 
tached great  importance  to  the  proper  education  of  the 
citizen.  He  did  not,  however,  assign  to  the  state  the 
duty  of  educating,  but  permitted  this  to  be  exercised  by 
private  individuals  under  state  control  and  state  guidance. 
Much  as  he  exalted  the  state,  this  philosopher  never  failed 
to  recognize  the  rights  of  the  individual  nor  to  make 
provision  for  his  development  and  education.  Under  the 


860  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

influence  of  such  teaching,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
Athens  rose  to  so  high  a  level  of  pure  democracy. 

"The  Spartan  system  of  education,"  on  the  contrary, 
"was  socialistic  and  utilitarian,  designed  solely  for  the 
benefit  of  the  state  and  not  for  the  individual.  The  boy 
was  systematically  trained  for  his  place  as  the  defender  of 
the  nation,  and  the  girl  for  the  office  of  mother  to  give  new 
warriors  to  her  country.  Such  a  system  in  a  despotic 
socialistic  state  was  successful  in  achieving  its  purpose 
for  it  produced  a  nation  of  warriors  able  to  defend  the 
home  and  ready  for  conquest  abroad,  but  it  could  not  go 
further,  and  when  that  rigor  of  training  ceased,  and  the 
conqueror  appeared,  it  was  bound  to  disappear  with  the 
nation  itself.  It  incorporated  no  religious  teaching  nor 
sound  moral  training,  and  it  made  no  provision  for  the 
pursuit  of  the  arts  and  sciences.  The  all  absorbing  and 
pervading  spirit  of  patriotism  and  devotion  to  the  state 
which  dominated  everything,  could  not  supply  for  the 
elements  in  training  which  develop  character  and  strength 
of  mind  hi  the  individual,  and  in  the  social  body,  and  upon 
which  the  real  stability  of  a  nation  depends."1 

The  views  of  the  nature  and  function  of  the  state  main- 
tained by  conservative  thinkers  of  the  present  lie  between 
these  extremes,  and  the  views  concerning  proper  civic 
education  take  on  a  corresponding  modification.  "The 
function  of  the  state,"  says  Paulsen,  "is  to  realize  the 
vital  interests  of  the  community,  first  of  all  by  protection 
against  foreign  and  civil  enemies,  and  then  by  action  in 
those  fields  where  the  energy  of  the  individual  is  insuffi- 
cient or  would  be  opposed  to  the  interests  of  the  com- 
munity."2 

1  McCormick,  Hist.  Educ.,  Washington,  1915,  p.  33. 
1  Paulsen,  System  der  Ethik,  fifth   edition,  Vol.  ii,  p.  527,  cf.   also 
ibid.,  513.     Quoted  by  Kerscbensteiner,  Ed.  for  Cit.,  p.  17. 


EDUCATION  FOB  CITIZENSHIP  261 

There  can  be  no  dispute  concerning  the  duty  of  the 
state  to  protect  the  public  against  its  enemies,  whether 
internal  or  external,  and  in  the  preparation  of  the  indivi- 
dual citizen  for  this  duty  we  have  the  first  clearly  defined 
element  of  civic  education,  however,  much  remains  to  be 
done  towards  determining  what  this  training  shall  consist 
of.  In  a  military  state  it  will  naturally  consist  in  large 
measure  of  military  training;  in  an  industrial  state  it  may 
well  take  on  such  a  character  as  will  enable  the  individual 
to  cooperate  intelligently  in  the  upbuilding  and  preserva- 
tion of  the  industrial  independence  of  the  nation;  and 
where  the  citizens  are  sufficiently  enlightened  to  perceive 
that  the  best  good  of  a  nation  is  to  be  attained  along  the 
lines  of  intellectual,  aesthetic  and  religious  uplift,  educa- 
tion for  effective  citizenship  will  have  a  much  larger 
infiltration  of  cultural  elements. 

There  is  much  more  difficulty  in  shaping  an  educational 
policy  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  second  part  of 
Paulsen's  definition  of  the  functions  of  the  state.  There 
is  always  present  a  conflict  of  interests  between  individual 
citizens  and  groups  of  citizens.  The  state  action  that 
favors  the  manufacturer  is  likely  to  work  hardship  to  the 
farmer,  and  where  the  territory  is  large,  a  public  policy 
that  serves  the  interests  of  one  section  is  likely  to  work 
hardship  to  another. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  state  in  a  democracy  to  maintaiji 
the  interests  of  the  whole  people:  although  the  majority 
governs,  the  rights  of  the  minority  must  not  be  ignored. 
Action  for  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number  is  a 
pernicious  fallacy.  The  greatest  good  of  the  minority  may 
at  times  be  identified  with  the  greatest  good  of  the  whole 
state;  whereas  the  greatest  good  of  the  majority  may  work 
deep  and  lasting  injury  if  it  is  made  the  norm  and  rule  of 


262  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

state  action.  The  state  needs  a  small  group  of  men  with 
the  highest  possible  training  to  enact  its  laws  and  to 
administer  them  wisely.  A  public  policy  that  would  be 
shaped  by  the  intelligence  of  the  majority  of  voters  in  a 
country  like  the  United  States  would  lead  rapidly  to 
demoralization  and  to  arrest  of  the  forces  making  for 
civilization. 

Considerations  such  as  these  lead  to  the  formulation 
of  another  element  in  civic  education,  viz.,  each 
citizen  should  receive  an  education  which  will  fit 
him  for  the  discharge  of  his  duties  towards  the  state. 
One  may  serve  the  state  by  his  skill  in  manufacture  which 
contributes  towards  the  prosperity  of  the  country;  an- 
other may  best  serve  the  interests  of  the  nation  by  under- 
going a  long  course  of  training  for  the  legal  profession  so 
that  he  may  be  able  to  contribute  to  the  wisdom  and 
justice  of  our  laws  and  to  their  equitable  administration. 

A  democracy,  more  than  any  other  country,  demands 
inequality  in  the  education  given  to  its  members.  Those 
who  are  especially  gifted  by  nature  must,  for  the  public 
good,  receive  such  a  training  as  will  fit  them  for  leadership, 
and  this  training  is  neither  possible  nor  necessary  for  the 
rank  and  file  of  voters  whose  highest  duty  it  is  to  second 
the  efforts  of  the  leaders  whom  they  conscientiously  select 
from  the  ranks  of  those  who,  by  training  and  virtue,  are 
available. 

The  chief  difficulty  encountered  in  a  democracy  centers 
round  the  determination  of  vocation.  Who  will  be 
selected  to  fill  our  administrative  offices  ?  Who  will  pick 
out  the  boys  who  are  to  receive  a  training  that  will  fit 
them  for  the  bench  ?  Who  are  to  be  our  physicians  and 
surgeons?  Who  our  priests  and  teachers?  None  of 
these  decisions  can  be  based  on  birth  or  social  strata  in 


EDUCATION  FOR  CITIZENSHIP  263 

this  country,  as  they  may  well  be  in  countries  that  still 
preserve  social  laminae.  As  a  result  of  this  condition,  it 
will  be  seen  that  universal  education  is  demanded  for  the 
good  of  the  state.  All  the  children  should  receive  such 
an  education  as  will  fit  them  to  proceed  along  the  lines  of 
their  native  abilities  when  the  proper  time  for  differentia- 
tion comes.  The  best  interests  of  the  nation  demand 
that  education  search  out  all  the  ranks  and  files  of  our 
children  to  discover  if  possible  those  who  are  especially 
gifted  for  the  higher  walks  of  life.  This  general  educa- 
tion should  be  maintained  until  the  advent  of  adolescence 
begins  to  manifest  aptitudes  and  vocations. 

General  education  is  demanded  by  the  interests  of  the 
state  for  many  other  reasons  besides  that  of  giving 
opportunity  to  determine  vocations  to  the  higher  walks  of 
life.  The  vital  interests  of  the  community  demand  that 
every  citizen  should  lend  to  the  state  intelligent  coopera- 
tion in  the  making  and  enforcing  of  just  laws,  in  the  admin- 
istration of  public  affairs,  and  in  the  promotion  of  brotherly 
love  and  genuine  cooperation  among  all  the  elements  of 
the  population.  The  imparting  of  skill  which  will  enable 
the  individual  to  make  his  contribution  to  the  material 
well-being  or  intellectual  advancement  of  the  people  is 
the  specific  aim  of  vocational  education  and  this  is  indeed 
included  in  education  for  citizenship. 

Kerschensteiner  maintains  that  efficiency  in  one's  chosen 
trade  is  not  only  demanded  for  the  good  of  the  whole 
people,  in  so  far  as  it  contributes  to  industrial  and  economic 
independence,  but  that  in  the  training  for,  and  in  the 
exercise  of  this  efficiency,  the  other  qualities  necessary  for 
citizenship  may  be  most  effectively  secured. 

"As  a  means  of  insuring  personal  efficiency,  and  so  of 
enabling  a  pupil  to  take  that  part  in  society  which  his 


264  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

capacity  warrants,  the  first  place  must  be  assigned  to  a 
training  in  trade  efficiency.  This  is  the  conditio  sine  qua 
non  of  all  civic  education.  But  in  the  prosecution  of  this 
object,  in  the  training  which  inspires  love  of  work  and 
results  in  effectiveness  of  effort,  precisely  those  civic 
virtues  are  developed  which  must  be  regarded  as  the 
foundation  of  all  higher  moral  training, — conscientious- 
ness, diligence,  perseverance,  self-restraint,  and  devotion 
to  a  strenuous  life.  From  a  consideration  of  the  inter- 
dependence of  individual  interests  it  may  be  possible  to 
develop  the  highest  of  civic  virtues, — self-control,  justice, 
and  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  community.  How 
far  education  will  be  helpful  here  depends  upon  the  extent 
to  which  our  educational  arrangements  make  it  possible 
for  the  pupil  to  be  actively  related  to  his  environment 
and  to  apply  the  sympathetic  interests  we  have  aroused 
in  him.  For  action  is  the  only  foundation  of  virtue."1 

Over  and  above  the  skill  which  the  individual  should 
possess  in  his  vocation,  the  welfare  of  the  state  demands 
that  he  be  dowered  with  certain  moral  qualities  among 
which  the  following  six  are  conspicuous : 

1.  The  faith  of  man  in  his  fellow-man  lies  at  the  founda- 
tion of  a  democracy.  Without  it  our  social  institutions 
and  the  state  itself  must  cease  to  exist.  The  son  who  has 
no  belief  in  his  mother's  virtue  beyond  that  which  might 
be  established  by  evidence  that  would  convince  an  in- 
different or  hostile  jury,  is  unworthy  to  bear  the  title  of 
son.  The  husband  who  has  no  belief  in  his  wife,  and  the 
wife  who  has  no  belief  in  her  husband,  beyond  that  deter- 
mined in  a  similar  way,  render  marriage  futile  and  home 
impossible.  The  success  among  the  people  of  any  move- 
ment for  freedom  or  uplift  depends  upon  the  faith  of  the 

1  Kerschensteiner,  Educ.  for  Cit.,  Chicago,  1911,  p.  24. 


EDUCATION  FOR  CITIZENSHIP  265 

people  in  their  chosen  leaders.  In  our  courts  of  justice, 
our  property  rights  and  even  our  lives  rest  upon  our  faith 
in  the  truthfulness  of  witnesses  and  in  the  integrity  of 
jurors  and  judges.  Destroy  public  confidence  in  our 
merchants  and  in  our  bankers,  in  OUT  social  and  religious 
leaders,  and  in  our  public  officials,  and  all  the  institutions 
of  the  democracy  will  collapse. 

Moreover,  unless  the  child  possesses  a  faith  in  his 
teacher  which  will  make  it  possible  for  him  to  accept 
without  question  the  wisdom  of  the  ages  as  his  guide  in 
the  building  up  of  his  own  character  and  in  the  formation 
of  his  attitude  towards  his  fellow-man  and  the  institutions 
of  civil  life,  it  will  be  impossible  for  the  adult  generation 
to  assimilate  and  to  bind  to  itself  in  solidarity  the 
succeeding  generation.  The  state  would  thus  be  unable 
to  perpetuate  itself.  From  considerations  such  as  these, 
it  is  evident  that  the  natural  faith  of  man  in  his  fellow- 
man  must  take  its  place  among  the  fundamental  qualities 
demanded  for  worthy  citizenship. 

2.  Hope  is  scarcely  less  necessary  to  the  citizen  than  is 
faith.  Through  faith  he  is  put  into  possession  of  the 
treasures  accumulated  by  the  generations  that  have 
passed  away.  Through  hope  he  anticipates  the  harvests 
of  the  future.  Faith  broadens  his  view  and  clears  his 
understanding,  while  hope  supplies  the  reason  for  putting 
forth  his  energies  and  spending  himself.  A  man  marries 
and  founds  a  home  in  the  assured  hope  of  its  permanence. 
He  plants  his  crop  in  the  hope  of  reaping  the  harvest.  He 
builds  railroads,  develops  commerce  and  establishes 
factories  in  the  hope  of  reaping  the  legitimate  reward  of 
his  investments.  Faith  in  the  permanence  of  the  social 
order  is  the  source  from  which  hope  springs,  and  hope  is 
the  effective  force  that  carries  the  past  and  the  present 


266  PHILOSOPHT  OF  EDUCATION 

over  into  the  future.  Take  away  from  man  hope,  and 
not  only  will  his  own  life  become  vain  and  empty,  but  all 
progress  of  the  race  will  come  to  an  end,  and  all  that  has 
been  achieved  by  civilization  in  the  past  will  disappear. 
It  is  the  hope  of  what  the  future  may  bring  that  moves 
every  wheel  and  presses  every  spring  of  action  in  human 
life. 

The  propulsion  moving  man  to  create  the  future  out  of 
the  present  and  the  past  has  not  inaptly  been  described 
as  the  mother  instinct  of  the  race.  "Motherhood  is  the 
law  of  the  universe.  The  whole  duty  of  man  is  to  be  a 
mother.  We  labor;  to  what  end?  The  children, — the 
woman  in  the  home,  the  man  in  the  community.  The 
nation  takes  thought  for  its  future;  why?  In  a  few 
years  its  statesmen,  its  soldiers,  its  merchants,  its  toilers, 
will  be  gathered  unto  their  fathers.  Why  trouble  we 
ourselves  about  the  future?  The  country  pours  its  blood 
and  treasure  into  the  earth  that  the  children  may  reap. 
Foolish  Jacques  Bonhomie,  his  addled  brain  full  of  the 
maddest  dreams,  rushes  with  bloody  hands  to  give  his 
blood  for  Liberty,  Equality,  Fraternity.  He  will  not  live 
to  see,  except  in  vision,  the  new  world  he  gives  his  bones 
to  build — even  his  spinning,  word-whipped  head  knows 
that.  But  the  children!  they  shall  live  sweeter  lives. 
The  peasant  leaves  his  fireside  to  die  upon  the  battlefield. 
What  is  it  to  him,  a  grain  in  the  human  sand,  that  Russia 
should  conquer  the  East,  that  Germany  should  be  united, 
that  the  English  flag  should  wave  above  new  lands?  The 
heritage  his  fathers  left  him  shall  be  greater  for  his  sons. 
Patriotism!  What  is  it,  but  the  mother  instinct  of  a 
people?"1  By  hope  the  parents  live  in  anticipation  the 

1  Jerome,  Second  Thoughts  of   an   Idle  Fellow,  New    York,  1906. 

p.  272-3. 


EDUCATION  FOR  CITIZENSHIP  267 

lives  of  their  children  and  rejoice  in  their  joys.  They 
are  carried  out  of  the  sordidness  of  the  present  with  its 
selfishness  and  greed  and,  by  living  through  hope  in  an 
ideal  world,  are  purified  and  ennobled.  But  to  produce 
this  salutary  effect,  hope  must  not  only  spring  from  faith, 
but  it  must  be  accompanied  and  controlled  by  love. 

3.  Man's  love  for  his  fellow-man  is,  in  fact,  the  funda- 
mental principle  on  which  Christian  civilization  rests. 
We  have  only  to  look  at  life  below  the  human  level  to 
learn  that  no  species  may  maintain  itself  in  the  struggle 
for  existence  save  through  cooperation  of  individual  with 
individual.  Individual  against  individual  is  a  principle 
of  disintegration  and  death  even  among  the  lower  forms 
of  life.  The  extent  to  which  the  principle  of  cooperation 
obtains  measures  the  progress  of  every  species.  The 
great  struggle  for  existence  to  be  found  on  all  planes  of 
life  is  the  struggle  of  species  with  species  rather  than  of 
individual  with  individual.  Without  that  solidarity 
between  the  members  of  the  same  generation  and  between 
successive  generations  which  is  secured  through  instinct, 
no  species  could  maintain  or  perpetuate  itself.  In  nature, 
the  individual  is  ruthlessly  sacrificed  to  the  well-being 
of  the  species,  and  in  the  history  of  mankind,  whenever  the 
intellect  was  sufficiently  developed  to  enable  the  individual 
to  escape  this  sacrifice  for  the  welfare  of  the  race,  man 
died  unless  a  sufficient  motive  was  found  to  take  the  place 
of  the  atrophied  and  conquered  instinct  which  makes  so 
effectively  for  solidarity  in  the  mere  animal. 

The  principle  of  cooperation  as  operative  in  the  lower 
forms  of  life  is  not  confined  to  the  limits  of  the  genera  or 
species.  Naturalists  delight  in  calling  attention  to  the 
mutual  helpf  ulness  existing  among  forms  of  life  which  occupy 
widely  divergent  places  in  nature.  Darwin  pointed  out 


268  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  dependence  of  red  clover  upon  cats.  The  red  clover 
is  fertilized  by  the  bumble  bee  without  whose  help  it 
cannot  perpetuate  itself.  The  field  mice  feed  on  the 
bumble  bee's  larvae  and  its  stores  of  honey  and  thus  the 
bumble  bee  would  become  extinct  were  it  not  for  the  help 
offered  by  members  of  the  cat  family  in  keeping  down  the 
field  mice.  Insects  are  necessary  for  the  perpetuation  of 
the  flowering  plants  and  the  plants  are  necessary  as  a 
food  supply  for  the  insects.  Birds  are  supported  in  some 
measure  by  the  seeds  of  plants  and  they  make  return  for 
these  necessary  stores  of  food  by  keeping  down  insect 
life  and  thus  preventing  it  from  destroying  vegetation. 
The  earthworm  prepares  and  renews  the  soil  for  plant 
life.  The  bacteria  return  food  stuffs  to  the  general  store 
from  which  other  forms  of  life  may  draw  the  needed 
nourishment.  Thus  the  Creator  makes  all  His  creatures 
cooperate  in  carrying  on  the  work  of  life,  and  what  is  done 
through  instinctive  and  unconscious  forces  for  these 
lowly  forms  man  through  education  must  learn  to  do  for 
himself. 

The  Christian  State  is  bound  together  in  solidarity  by 
the  internal  bonds  of  faith  and  hope  and  charity  instead 
of  by  the  coercion  of  armed  forces.  In  Christian  civili- 
zation all  social  institutions  are  built  upon  the  intelli- 
gence, the  emotions  and  the  will  of  the  individuals.  The 
home  which  is  created  by  the  faith  and  hope  and  love  of 
one  man  for  one  woman  and  of  one  woman  for  one  man  is 
the  foundation  upon  which  the  welfare  of  the  whole  social 
body  rests.  The  Christian  home  is  indispensable  for  the 
maintenance  and  proper  upbringing  of  children.  The 
close  contact  of  the  child  with  the  daily  manifestation  by 
Christian  parents  of  self-oblation  and  self-sacrifice  is 
required  to  build  in  the  child's  soul  the  unshakable  foun- 


EDUCATION  FOR  CITIZENSHIP  209 

dations  of  faith  and  hope  and  love.  These  virtues,  im- 
planted in  the  home,  must  be  broadened  by  the  school  until 
they  embrace  the  entire  nation.  In  the  Christian  state 
the  citizen  must  believe  in  his  fellow-man;  he  must  labor 
for  his  interests  and  for  the  interests  of  the  generations  to 
come  after  him.  If  police  force  is  required,  the  necessity 
arises  from  the  failure  of  education  to  form  all  the 
children  into  worthy  citizens  and  force  must  be  invoked 
to  accomplish  what  should  have  been  achieved  in  a  far 
higher  degree  by  the  fundamental  virtues  which  should 
characterize  the  citizen. 

•  The  state,  in  educating  for  citizenship,  may  not  proceed 
effectively  with  the  work  of  broadening  the  faith,  hope 
and  charity  of  the  individual  beyond  the  national  limits. 
The  Church,  however,  knows  no  boundaries  of  color,  race 
or  creed.  She  aims  at  lifting  into  the  consciousness  of 
each  individual  an  effective  recognition  of  the  Fatherhood 
of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man.  The  cooperation 
secured  by  the  Church  among  the  children  of  men  may 
be  likened  to  the  cooperation  of  the  divers  forms  of  life 
pointed  out  above;  whereas  the  cooperation  called  for  to 
perpetuate  the  nation  may  be  likened  to  the  cooperation 
among  the  members  of  the  same  species. 

Competition,  or  the  struggle  of  individual  with  indi- 
vidual and  of  group  with  group,  moves  under  the  banner  of 
selfishness  and  greed,  which  are  always  near  the  surface, 
and  shock  the  sensibilities  of  gifted  souls.  Christianity, 
drawing  to  itself  the  finer  elements  of  human  nature  and 
the  choice  souls  among  the  children  of  men,  seeks  unceas- 
ingly to  supplant  competition  by  cooperation.  The  love 
of  the  parent  for  the  child,  acting  through  the  child's 
instinctive  tendency  to  imitate,  shifts  the  center  of 
gravity  from  the  child's  self  to  the  group.  It  teaches 


270  PHILOSOPHY  OF   EDUCATION 

him  to  strive  for  the  good  of  the  larger  self.  Upon  the  suc- 
cess of  the  parents  in  this  important  educative  function,  rein- 
forced by  the  school  and  the  church,  rests  the  welfare  of  fhe 
home,  the  city,  the  nation,  the  church  and  humanity  itself. 

The  element  of  progress  contained  in  cooperation 
as  opposed  to  competition  is  everywhere  manifest  in 
Christian  civilization,  in  art  and  literature,  in  medicine,  in 
scientific  research,  in  public  libraries  and  museums,  in 
public  parks  and  public  highways,  and  the  principle  is 
receiving  a  most  striking  illustration  in  the  economic  and 
industrial  revolution  which  is  carrying  us  from  a  tool  to  a 
machine  civilization. 

Faith,  hope  and  charity — these  three  virtues  constitute 
the  foundation  of  Christian  character  and  they  remain  the 
foundation  of  citizenship.  No  one  of  them  may  be  dis- 
pensed with  without  disaster.  To  produce  these  virtues 
in  the  children  and  to  cultivate  and  develop  them  to  a 
high  degree  of  efficiency  must,  therefore,  be  included  in 
all  education  for  citizenship,  but  in  effective  education  for 
citizenship  these  fundamental  virtues  should  be  supple- 
mented by  at  least  three  additional  virtues:  disinterested- 
ness, reverence  for  law  and  self-control. 

4.  The  worthy  citizen  must  ever  hold  the  public  good 
above  all  private  gain.  The  good  which  he  shares  with 
his  fellow-man  must  appeal  to  him  more  strongly  than  the 
good  which  ministers  to  his  own  individual  need.  He  must 
realize  that  what  he  does  for  others  goes  out  in  ever  wid- 
ening circles  and  is  likely  to  flow  onward  to  enrich  future 
generations;  whereas  the  good  directed  towards  self  is 
likely  to  end  there.  This  principle  holds  good  even  in 
material  matters  but  it  finds  its  fullest  fruition  in  the 
things  of  the  mind  which  like  the  quality  of  mercy, 
blesseth  him  that  gives  and  him  that  takes. 


EDUCATION  FOR  CITIZENSHIP  271 

Were  this  virtue  of  disinterestedness  well  developed  in 
our  men  in  public  life  and  in  public  office,  bribery,  fraud 
and  graft  would  be  unknown  in  our  midst.  As  it  is,  men 
may  readily  be  found  who  are  willing  to  die  for  their  coun- 
try, but  it  takes  years  of  effective  training  to  produce  men 
who  will  live  for  it.  The  sudden  awakening  of  the  martial 
spirit  or  a  wave  of  popular  sentiment,  may  sweep  men  from 
their  firesides  to  the  battle  front,  but  education  for  citizen- 
ship must  do  more  than  this :  it  must  give  the  individual 
the  power  to  live  for  his  country  and  exert  himself  in  its 
behalf  day  by  day.  He  must  learn  to  labor  unceasingly 
for  the  public  welfare  without  the  aid  that  comes  from  a 
tide  of  public  feeling. 

The  native  impulse,  with  its  note  of  self-oblation  and 
self-sacrifice,  which  leads  to  parentage,  must  be  con- 
verted by  education  for  citizenship  into  a  perma- 
nent, constantly  operative  principle  of  conduct.  It 
has  been  questioned,  and  it  is  still  open  to  question 
after  the  nation-wide  experiment  that  has  been  made  in 
our  midst  during  the  past  seventy-five  years,  whether  this 
result  may  be  achieved  without  invoking  God  and  a  belief 
in  supernatural  sanction  in  which  alone  the  individual 
may  find  himself  and  the  public  brought  into  unity,  but 
whatever  results  may  be  expected  to  reward  the  endeavor, 
schools  of  every  character  must  strive  to  lead  their  pupils 
towards  this  ideal. 

5.  The  quality  of  obedience  to  law  sufficed  for  the 
masses  where  government  was  conducted  by  the  aristoc- 
racy, but  in  a  country  like  our  own  where  the  government 
is  "of  the  people,  for  the  people  and  by  the  people"  the 
citizen  must  be  educated  in  a  three-fold  capacity  to 
support  law.  He  must  be  trained  to  take  his  due  share 
in  the  enactment  of  just  and  wise  legislation;  he  must  lend 


272  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

his  support  and  cooperation  to  the  judiciary  and  executive 
branches  of  the  government;  and  he  must  obey  loyally 
and  help  to  secure  the  obedience  of  others  to  the  existing 
laws.  Education  for  citizenship  must,  therefore,  include 
among  its  aims  the  development  in  each  individual  of 
qualities  which  will  enable  him  to  vote  intelligently  and 
induce  him  to  vote  conscientiously  for  men  and  measures 
that  seem  calculated  to  promote  the  public  good.  The 
school  must  also  aim  at  producing  men  of  fine  ability  to 
fill  public  offices  and  men  who  will  loyally  support  the 
educational  efforts  calculated  to  secure  the  greatest  freedom 
of  selection  and  the  greatest  efficacy  in  educating  public 
servants. 

6.  Finally,  the  citizen  must  be  trained  to  curb  his  own 
appetites  and  to  subjugate  his  own  desires  so  that  he  may 
labor  for  the  public  good  and  work  no  injury  to  his  fellow- 
man  nor  interfere  with  any  right  or  privilege  possessed  by 
another.  Each  individual  must  learn  to  govern  himself 
and  the  kingdom  of  his  own  passions  before  he  is  fit  for 
citizenship  and  before  he  may  be  safely  entrusted  to 
participate  in  the  government  of  others. 

To  educate  for  citizenship,  therefore,  means  much  more 
than  to  equip  the  individual  for  economic  efficiency  or  to 
develop  in  him  those  qualities  which  may  minister  to  his 
selfish  pleasures  and  aggrandizement.  It  means,  chiefly, 
the  production  and  development  in  the  children  of  the  six 
virtues  enumerated  above.  This,  in  fact,  is  what  is 
properly  understood  as  the  scope  of  the  moral  teaching 
which  is  so  universally  insisted  upon  as  the  first  duty  of  the 
school.  The  public  school  does,  indeed,  aim  at  the  devel- 
opment of  these  virtues,  and  educational  leaders  in  our 
public  school  system  have  manifested  great  earnestness 
in  their  endeavors  to  secure  effectiveness  in  this  respect. 


EDUCATION  FOR  CITIZENSHIP  273 

The  chief  difficulties  encountered  are  two:  the  want  of 
adequate  motive  and  the  fact  that  these  virtues  cannot  be 
dealt  with  in  the  formal  curriculum  as  we  might  deal  with 
mathematics  or  geography.  The  schools  may,  and  do, 
teach  history  and  stress  particularly  the  history  of  our  own 
country.  The  children's  admiration  may  be  called  forth 
for  able  and  disinterested  statesmen,  for  military  heroes, 
and  for  generous  deeds.  They  may  be  instructed  in  the 
history  of  our  government  and  may  be  led  to  appreciate 
the  difficulties  that  were  encountered  in  the  endeavor  to 
secure  national  well-being  together  with  large  individual 
freedom.  All  this  is  well,  but  there  are  many  educators  in 
our  midst  who  refuse  to  accept  it  as  sufficient,  and,  indeed, 
this  refusal  finds  support  in  the  meagerness  of  the  results 
thus  far  achieved. 


Part  III 

Educative  Agencies 


CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  HOME 

It  is  a  primary  function  of  education  to  adjust  each 
individual  child  to  the  environments  in  which  he  is  to 
spend  his  adult  years.  These  environments  are  various 
in  character  and  adequate  adjustment  to  them  on  the 
part  of  the  individual  implies  a  certain  control  over  them 
as  well  as  a  control  over  self. 

In  educating  for  economic  efficiency,  the  child  is  being 
adjusted  to  his  physical  environments,  and,  while  such 
adjustment  is  indispensable,  the  higher  elements  of  his 
nature  are  not  usually  directly  involved  in  the  process. 
Man,  however,  is  a  social  being,  and  it  is  in  his  varied 
social  relationships  that  his  higher  vital  powers  find 
expression. 

Society  differs  widely  in  constitution  at  different  times 
and  among  different  peoples.  When,  therefore,  we  speak 
of  educating  for  social  efficiency,  we  mean  that  the 
educative  agency  seeks  to  develop  such  social  qualities 
in  the  individual  as  will  enable  him  to  contribute  effectively 
to  the  social  well-being  of  the  people  among  whom  he 
may  live. 

In  like  manner,  education  for  individual  culture  pre- 
pares, not  only  for  individual  well-being  and  happiness, 
but  for  the  happiness  and  well-being  of  any  social  group 
with  which  the  individual  may  come  in  contact.  Ade- 
quate adjustment  to  social  environment,  however, 
demands  more  than  this  general  preparation.  The 
individual  must  be  adjusted  to  the  institutions  on  which 
Christian  civilization  rests.  These  are  chiefly  the  home, 
the  state  and  the  church. 

477 


278  PHILOSOPHY  or  EDUCATION 

The  place  and  importance  of  the  family  in  the  social 
fabric  have  not  remained  constant.  The  Roman  familia 
did  not  always  consist  merely  of  husband,  wife  and 
children.  It  was  composed  of  a  group  of  persons  subject 
to  the  same  family  head  and  frequently  included  not  only 
sons  and  daughters,  but  daughters-in-law  and  the  grand- 
children by  sons,  etc.  The  family  in  modern  society  is 
much  more  independent  than  it  was  in  ancient  and  primi- 
tive communities  where  it  was  usually  directly  subordinate 
to  the  clan. 

From  the  beginning,  the  family  consisted  essentially  of 
one  father  and  one  mother  united  in  a  permanent  union, 
and  their  children:  "Wherefore  a  man  shall  leave  father 
and  mother,  and  shall  cleave  to  his  wife:  and  they  shall 
be  two  in  one  flesh."1  This  ancient  charter  of  the  family 
was  reaffirmed  by  Christ  and  made  a  part  of  the  Christian 
dispensation:  "Therefore  now  they  are  not  two,  but  one 
flesh.  What  therefore  God  hath  joined  together,  let  no 
man  put  asunder."2 

The  family  has  not  always  remained  true  to  this  ideal. 
Even  among  the  Chosen  People  polygamy  gained  a  foot- 
hold, and  among  pagan  and  primitive  peoples  polyandry, 
polygamy  and  promiscuity  made  their  appearance. 
Moreover,  among  pagan  peoples,  as  well  as  among 
Christian  peoples  who  have  drifted  from  the  unity  of 
faith  in  the  Catholic  Church,  marriage  has  not  always 
remained  indissoluble.  Nor  did  the  rights  of  wife  and 
children  always  receive  adequate  recognition  and  pro- 
tection in  the  ancient  world. 

"The  ease  with  which  husband  and  wife  could  dissolve 
their  union  constitutes  one  of  the  greatest  blots  upon  the 

1  Gen.  ii,  24. 
1  Matt,  six,  6. 


THE  HOME  279 

civilization  of  classic  Rome.  Generally  speaking,  the 
position  of  woman  was  very  low  among  all  the  nations, 
civilized  and  uncivilized,  before  the  coming  of  Christ. 
Among  the  barbarians  she  very  frequently  became  a  wife 
through  capture  or  purchase;  among  even  the  most 
advanced  peoples  the  wife  was  generally  her  husband's 
property,  his  chattel,  his  laborer.  Nowhere  was  the 
husband  bound  by  the  same  law  of  marital  fidelity  as  the 
wife,  and  in  very  few  places  was  he  compelled  to  concede 
to  her  equal  rights  in  the  matter  of  divorce.  Infanticide 
was  practically  universal,  and  the  patria  potestas  of  the 
Roman  father  gave  him  the  right  of  life  and  death  over 
even  his  grown-up  children.  In  a  word,  the  weaker 
members  of  the  family  were  everywhere  inadequately 
protected  against  the  stronger."1 

Christ  not  only  restored  the  unity  and  indissolubility 
of  the  family,  but,  by  raising  the  contract  from  which  it 
springs  to  the  dignity  of  a  sacrament,  He  "placed  the 
Christian  family  itself  upon  the  plane  of  the  supernatural. 
The  family  is  holy  inasmuch  as  it  is  to  cooperate  with 
God  by  procreating  children  who  are  destined  to  be  the 
adopted  children  of  God,  and  by  instructing  them  for 
His  kingdom."  The  particular  functions  in  the  Christian 
family  of  husband  and  wife  who,  by  the  sacrament  of 
matrimony  are  placed  on  a  plane  of  real  and  definite 
equality,  "are  determined  by  their  different  natures,  and 
by  their  relation  to  the  primary  end  of  the  family,  namely, 
the  procreation  of  children.  Being  the  provider  of  the 
family,  and  the  superior  of  the  wife  both  in  physical 
strength  and  in  those  mental  and  moral  qualities  which 
are  appropriate  to  the  exercise  of  authority,  the  husband 
is  naturally  the  family's  head,  even  'the  head  of  the  wife,' 

1  Ryan,  Art.  Family  Cath.  Encyo. 


280  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

in  the  language  of  St.  Paul.  This  does  not  mean  that 
the  wife  is  the  husband's  slave,  his  servant,  or  his  subject. 
She  is  his  equal,  both  as  a  human  being  and  as  a  member 
of  the  conjugal  society,  save  only  that  when  a  disagreement 
arises  in  matters  pertaining  to  domestic  government,  she 
is,  as  a  rule,  to  yield.  To  claim  for  her  completely  equal 
authority  with  the  husband  is  to  treat  woman  as  man's 
equal  in  a  matter  in  which  nature  has  made  them  unequal. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  care  and  management  of  the  details 
of  the  household  belong  naturally  to  the  wife  because  she 
is  better  fitted  for  these  tasks  than  the  husband.  .  .  . 

"When  the  conjugal  union  has  been  blessed  with 
children,  both  parents  are  charged,  according  to  their 
respective  functions,  with  the  duty  of  sustaining  and  edu- 
cating those  undeveloped  members  of  the  family.  Their 
moral  and  religious  formation  is  for  the  most  part  the 
work  of  the  mother,  while  the  task  of  providing  for  their 
physical  and  intellectual  wants  falls  chiefly  upon  the 
father.  The  extent  to  which  the  different  wants  of  the 
children  are  to  be  supplied  will  vary  with  the  ability  and 
resources  of  the  parents.  Finally,  the  children  are 
bound,  generally  speaking,  to  render  to  the  parents 
implicit  love,  reverence,  and  obedience,  until  they  have 
reached  their  majority,  and  love,  reverence,  and  a  reason- 
able degree  of  support  and  obedience  afterward."1 

In  adjusting  the  child  to  his  present  and  future  position 
in  the  family,  account  must  also  be  taken  of  the  relation 
that  should  be  maintained  between  the  family  and  other 
social  institutions,  such  as  the  Church  and  the  State. 
In  the  Christian  state  the  family  is  the  social  unit  and 
the  basis  of  civil  society.  The  state  is,  of  course,  con- 
cerned with  the  individual,  since  it  exists,  as  do  the 

1  Ryan,  op.  cit. 


THE  HOME  281 

family  and  the  Church,  primarily  for  the  welfare  of  the 
individual,  but  the  state  should  deal  with  the  individual 
as  a  member  of  the  family,  and  where  the  state  ignores  or 
neglects  the  family  and  deals  directly  with  the  individual 
as  such,  the  natural  result  is  the  weakening  and  disintegra- 
ting of  the  family,  which,  in  turn,  works  serious  injury  to 
the  individual  and  to  the  state. 

In  Christian  society  the  family  constitutes  the  natural 
and  constant  environment  for  the  great  majority  of  indi- 
viduals, both  old  and  young.  The  family  is  the  chief 
agency  in  shaping  individual  life,  both  through  the  natural 
stimulus  to  activity  which  it  offers  to  its  adult  members, 
and  through  the  educational  facilities  which  it  affords 
for  the  formation  of  character.  The  best  interests  of  the 
state,  therefore,  no  less  than  the  essential  well-being  of  the 
individual  and  the  home,  demand  that  the  parents  be 
clothed  with  full  authority  in  the  management  of  the 
affairs  of  the  home.  They  must  have  complete  control 
over  the  rearing  and  the  education  of  the  children,  subject 
only  to  such  state  supervision  as  is  needed  to  prevent 
neglect  of  the  children's  welfare.  The  state  is,  in  fact, 
invading  the  rights  of  the  home  whenever,  without 
necessity,  it  interferes  in  family  life  by  providing  for  the 
material  wants  of  the  children,  by  removing  them  from 
parental  influence,  or  by  specifying  the  schools  which  they 
must  attend.  If  the  poverty  of  the  parents  renders  it 
necessary  that  support  of  the  children  should  be  provided 
by  the  state,  the  interests  of  the  family  demand  that  such 
assistance  should  come  through  the  parents.  If  the  pov- 
erty of  the  home  in  educational  material  be  such  as  to 
render  outside  assistance  necessary,  this,  likewise,  should 
come  with  due  recognition  of  parental  authority. 

In  Christian  society  the  family  is  the  fundamental 


282  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

educative  agency.  The  parents  are  dowered  with 
special  sacramental  graces  to  enable  them  to  discharge 
worthily  the  function  of  teachers  towards  their  children. 
When  conditions  economic  and  social  are  such  as  to 
render  it  impossible  for  the  home  to  carry  on,  unaided, 
the  education  of  the  children  and  the  school  is  rendered 
necessary,  parental  authority  should  follow  the  child  and 
take  its  due  place  in  controlling  the  character  and  activities 
of  the  school. 

The  educational  possibilities  of  the  industrial  home 
were  very  great.  The  constant  presence  of  both  parents 
and  of  the  adult  members  of  the  home  group  furnished 
opportunity  for  constant  instruction  of  the  children  in  all 
the  practical  affairs  of  life,  while  the  life-sustaining 
industry  carried  on  within  the  precincts  of  the  home  fur- 
nished material  for  physical  education  and  sensory-motor 
training  of  a  high  order.  The  will  of  the  child  was 
strengthened  and  his  character  developed  by  the  respon- 
sibilities which  he  gradually  took  over  and  by  the  atmos- 
phere of  love  in  which  he  lived.  The  real  interest  which 
called  forth  his  efforts  acted  as  a  powerful  stimulus  in 
developing  his  various  faculties.  Day  by  day  appercep- 
tion masses  were  formed  which  enabled  him  to  understand 
literature  and  history  and  to  take  over  the  valuable 
lessons  which  they  afford. 

Under  circumstances  such  as  these,  the  school  might 
well  confine  its  efforts  to  formal  education  and  the  school 
arts.  And  if  it  at  times  might  profitably  have  ventured 
further  in  acquainting  the  pupils  with  the  content  of 
ancient  civilizations,  it  was  not  called  upon  to  offer  a 
suitable  training  for  home  life,  for  this  was  given  far  more 
effectively  in  the  industrial  home  than  it  could  be  given 
in  the  school. 


THE  HOME  283 

Nor  was  the  training  given  there  confined  to  the  efforts 
of  preparing  the  individual  for  worthy  home  life;  it  was 
much  more  intense  in  character  and  had  a  much  broader 
outlook.  It  quickened  and  deepened  the  happiness  of 
every  member  of  the  group.  Husband  and  wife,  animated 
by  a  common  interest,  labored  together  and  spent  their 
lives  in  loving  companionship;  in  close  touch  with  nature 
they  enjoyed  freedom  and  peace  and  protection  from 
temptation  and  danger  while  they  lived  their  own  child- 
hood and  youth  over  again  in  the  children  that  grew  up 
about  them. 

The  children,  spending  their  lives  in  the  atmosphere  of 
parental  love,  were  not  only  preserved  from  the  many 
dangers  which  threaten  the  unprotected  life  of  childhood, 
but  they  learned  day  by  day  the  meaning  of  love  and  the 
happiness  which  flows  from  it;  day  by  day  they  learned 
to  love  God  as  the  common  Father  of  all  men  and  to  love 
all  men  as  then*  brothers.  Thus  the  Golden  Rule  tended 
to  become  the  rule  of  their  life;  religion  deepened  its  hold 
upon  the  imagination  and  the  heart  and  the  child  naturally 
matured  into  worthy  citizenship. 

The  industrial  home  was  created,  in  large  measure,  by 
the  family  and  it  provided  a  suitable  environment  for 
family  life  in  all  its  phases,  but  the  industrial  home  is  a 
thing  of  the  past.  However  deeply  we  may  regret  its 
loss,  it  is  not  within  the  limits  of  our  power  to  recall  it. 
All  that  the  state  or  the  church  or  society  at  large  can 
do  is  to  employ  suchjneans  as  may  be  available  to  protect 
the  family  under  the  new  conditions  and  to  help  it  to 
create  the  new  environment  which  its  salvation  demands. 
In  this  work  the  school  seemsoiestined  to  play  an  important 
rfile. 

In  the  rapid  transition  through  which  society  is  passing, 


284  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

from  a  tool  to  a  machine  civilization  the  home  is  affected 
more  profoundly,  perhaps,  than  any  other  social  institu- 
tion. The  family  is  caught  up  in  the  vast  wheels  of  mod- 
ern industry  where  its  members  too  frequently  eat  the 
bread  of  discontent.  Husband  is  separated  from  wife, 
child  from  parent,  sister  from  brother,  and  each  and  all 
fill  out  the  weary  hours  of  toil  beneath  the  eye  of  a  task- 
master who  has  no  power  to  minister  to  their  needs;  who 
has  no  father's  heart  of  mercy;  who  has  no  mother's 
solicitude  for  the  salvation  of  the  child's  soul. 

In  the  social  confusion  resulting  from  this  industrial 
revolution,  men  and  women  sometimes  become  bewildered 
and  may  be  found  fighting  against  their  own  best  interests, 
regarding  themselves  as  competitors  and  losing  sight  of 
the  fact  that  the  interests  of  man  and  woman  must  forever 
remain  inseparable.  The  life  of  each  is  incomplete  without 
the  other;  they  are  complements  one  of  the  other,  not 
duplicates.  The  deepest  law  of  their  natures  makes  their 
interests  identical  and  renders  it  forever  impossible  for 
them  to  be  rivals  or  competitors. 

The  greatest  need  of  the  family  in  the  present  is  a  new 
home  which  will  be  so  constructed  as  to  meet  effectively 
the  conditions  of  the  new  economic  and  social  world  in 
which  it  must  live  and  in  which  it  may  find  protection 
from  the  dangers  which  threaten  the  very  fountains  of 
race  life. 

Man  and  woman  must  labor  together  in  building  a  new 
home  to  meet  the  conditions  of  the  new  world  in  which 
they  find  themselves.  The  home  of  the  past  was  indus- 
trial; the  home  of  the  future  must  be  cultural.  The 
new  organization  of  industry  has  resulted  in  lengthened 
hours  of  leisure  that  should  be  spent  in  the  home  in  the 
pursuit  of  the  things  of  the  mind.  The  companionship 


THE  HOME  285 

in  the  work  of  their  hands  which  husband  and  wife  have 
lost  in  the  passage  of  the  old  home,  they  must  find  again 
in  the  cultivation  of  their  minds  and  hearts.  In  the  past, 
the  children  grew  up  beneath  the  sheltering  roof  of  home 
and  their  conduct  throughout  We  was  governed  by  local 
customs  and  family  traditions.  The  home  of  the  future 
must  develop  high  ideals  in  the  minds  of  the  children; 
it  must  form  their  characters  at  an  early  age  to  such 
strength  that  they  may  be  able  to  face  alone,  before  they 
reach  maturity,  all  the  wild  storms  of  temptation  and 
passion.  The  home  of  the  future  must  breathe  a  charm 
so  potent  that  it  will  gather  to  its  bosom  each  evening  the 
dispersed  and  wearied  toilers  of  the  day.  The  home  of  the 
future,  even  as  the  home  of  the  past,  must  be  the  sanctuary 
of  life  and  the  dwelling  place  of  love.  In  the  home  of  the 
future  the  mind  must  find  room  to  grow  in  truth  and 
beauty;  in  it  there  must  be  an  atmosphere  of  refinement 
and  culture.  Beauty  must  cover  it  with  her  mantle  and 
courage  must  protect  it  with  his  shield. 

In  the  development  of  institutions,  as  of  individuals,  the 
prevailing  trend  is  from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  from 
the  homogeneous  to  the  heterogeneous,  from  the  latent 
to  the  explicit,  but  both  in  the  individual  and  in  the 
institution  profound  metamorphoses  occasionally  take 
place  wherein  the  general  trend  seems,  at  first  sight,  to 
be  reversed.  The  exception,  however,  is  only  seeming, 
and  when  a  wider  view  is  taken  it  will  usually  be  found 
that  the  reason  for  the  apparent  exception  lies  in  the  fact 
that  the  transformation  in  question  affects  a  wider  group 
than  the  one  under  immediate  consideration. 

Thus,  the  trend  at  present  would  seem  to  be  towards 
the  simplification  of  the  home.  The  various  industries 
that  formerly  were  found  within  its  precincts  are  now  re- 


286  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

moved.  The  apprentice  and  the  laborer  are  frequently 
absent.  The  father  and  the  older  sons  and  daughters 
are  away  from  home  during  a  greater  portion  of  the 
waking  hours  of  each  day.  The  education  of  the  children 
is  more  completely  handed  over  to  the  school.  At  first 
sight,  therefore,  the  home  would  seem  to  be  greatly 
simplified  and  greatly  weakened.  There  is  undoubtedly 
a  redistribution  of  labor  made  from  the  standpoint  of  a 
larger  economic  unit  than  the  family,  as  a  result  of  which 
the  home  takes  part  in  the  usual  differentiation  of  structure 
and  specialization  of  function.  The  division  of  social 
function  within  the  home  and  without  it  has  been  altered 
and  the  old  assignments  of  duty  to  the  several  members 
of  the  home  is  no  longer  practicable. 

In  the  present  order  the  home  has  fewer  ends  to  attain, 
but  it  should  attain  these  ends  more  effectively  than  they 
were  attained  in  the  home  of  the  past.  The  first  clear 
line  of  division  affecting  the  transformation  of  the  home 
is  that  which  separates  the  industrial  process  from  the 
vital  functions  of  the  home.  Formerly  the  home  was  the 
social  unit  and  the  economic  unit.  Today,  it  has  ceased 
to  function  as  the  economic  unit  and  all  its  vitality  must 
manifest  itself  in  its  capacity  as  the  social  unit.  The 
business  of  the  family  today  is  the  perpetuation  of  the 
race  and  the  development  of  life  to  its  highest  level.  The 
freeing  of  the  home  from  the  processes  that  minister  to 
the  physical  necessities  of  life  should  enable  it  to  build 
life  itself  much  more  effectively. 

The  high  plane  of  life  attained  by  the  mammal  is  due 
chiefly  to  the  fact  that  during  all  the  long  series  of  develop- 
mental changes  the  individual  is  supported  by  the  parent 
and  allowed  to  devote  all  its  available  life-energy  to  self 
advancement.  In  like  manner,  the  home,  freed  from 


THE  HOME  287 

the  necessity  of  engaging  in  bread  winning  processes, 
should  be  able  to  secure  a  higher  development  of  the 
mental  and  moral  life  of  its  members.  In  the  early  days 
of  the  transformation,  however,  we  should  expect  to  find 
stress  and  strain  and  much  difficulty  in  adjusting  the 
home  to  its  new  function. 

In  the  first  place,  the  differentiation  called  for  in  the 
metamorphosis  of  the  home  removes  the  father  further 
than  ever  before  from  the  center  of  the  home  influence  and 
more  than  ever  places  the  burden  of  home-making  and 
home  development  upon  the  mother.  In  their  social  and 
economic  functions,  man  and  woman  have  been  separated 
from  each  other  by  a  greater  distance  than  that  which 
prevailed  in  the  past;  at  least  this  is  true  of  the  married 
man  and  the  married  woman.  The  unmarried  woman 
has  not  yet  found  her  place  in  the  new  industrial  world, 
and  she  frequently  appears  as  man's  competitor.  It  is 
needless  to  point  out  the  essential  transitoriness  of  this 
state  of  affairs,  for  if  woman's  business  is,  more  specifically 
than  heretofore,  homemaking,  she  must  receive  adequate 
preparation  for  this  through  suitable  training  and  specific 
employment  during  the  years  antedating  marriage. 

Society  is  not  advanced  by  placing  woman  by  man's 
side  in  the  industrial  arena  of  the  present.  If  the  social 
revolution  through  which  we  are  passing  is  to  mean 
advance  for  the  race,  it  must  result  in  a  sharper  differentia- 
tion of  the  functions  of  man  and  woman.  Man  is  tun- 
nelling the  mountain  and  bridging  the  ocean;  he  is  ran- 
sacking the  bowels  of  the  earth  for  its  treasures;  he  is 
converting  the  inaccessible  wilderness  into  busy  marts 
of  trade;  he  is  banishing  the  thorn  from  the  cactus  and  the 
seed  from  the  grape  and  the  orange.  In  none  of  these 
enterprises  does  he  stand  in  need  of  woman's  immediate 


288  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

cooperation.  Her  help  is  still  demanded,  but  it  should  be 
directed  towards  the  enhancement  of  life  and  the  preserva- 
tion of  its  ideals.  Woman's  part  in  the  progressive 
movement  must  be  that  of  creating  the  home  of  the  future. 
In  this  dwelling  place  of  the  family  she  must  preserve  the 
sacred  fires  of  religion  and  culture,  and  she  must  save  man 
from  materialism  and  from  the  worship  of  the  golden  calf. 
Woman  must  build  a  home  in  which  man  will  find  rest 
from  his  toil,  consolation  in  his  sorrow,  strength  to  battle 
with  temptations,  courage  in  the  midst  of  disaster,  and 
companionship  in  the  highest  aspirations  of  his  soul. 
If  she  fails  in  this,  all  her  other  achievements  are  valueless. 
It  will  profit  nothing  that  she  should  explore  the  hitherto 
undiscovered  regions  of  natural  truth,  that  she  should 
write  books  or  paint  pictures,  that  she  should  help  man 
to  build  more  bridges,  or  to  construct  more  high  buildings, 
to  reclaim  desert  places,  or  to  accumulate  more  millions, 
for  none  of  these  things  have  value  in  themselves.  Unless 
they  can  be  bent  to  the  higher  purposes  of  life,  they 
constitute  only  impedimenta  and  hindrances  to  real 
progress;  they  are  in  their  very  essence  means  to  an  end 
and  that  end  is  the  enrichment  of  life  which,  in  the  present 
order  of  things,  is  entrusted  to  woman  more  than  ever 
before. 

Of  what  value  will  all  the  material  achievements  of  the 
age  be  if,  in  the  onward  rush  of  material  prosperity,  we 
are  left  without  homes  in  which  the  children  may  grow  in 
strength  and  beauty.  If  the  race  were  to  end  with  this 
generation,  it  has  been  asked,  "Think  you  we  should  move 
another  hand;  the  ships  would  rot  in  the  harbors;  the  grain 
would  rot  in  the  ground;  should  we  paint  pictures,  write 
books,  make  music,  hemmed  in  by  that  onward  creeping 
sea  of  silence?" 


THE  HOME  289 

When  the  last  word  is  said,  the  welfare  of  the  child 
is  the  goal  of  all  human  endeavor  and  the  measure  of 
all  human  achievement.  It  is  for  him  that  homes  are 
created,  and  it  is  for  him  that  we  all  labor,  and  it  is  for  his 
sake  that  man  and  woman  are  joined  together  by  nature 
in  the  bonds  of  undying  love,  and  it  is  for  his  sake,  no 
less  than  for  the  father  and  mother,  that  the  marriage 
contract  was  elevated  to  sacramental  potency  by  Jesus 
Christ.  The  home  of  the  future,  therefore,  even  more 
completely  than  the  home  of  the  past,  should  be  built 
to  minister  to  the  needs  of  childhood,  and  woman  must 
be  formed  by  all  the  educative  agencies  hi  society  to  preside 
over  this  home  worthily. 

One  of  the  gravest  problems  confronting  educators 
today  is  to  determine  the  education  woman  should  receive 
to  enable  her  to  build  securely  a  home  that  will  meet  the 
present  social  and  economic  conditions.  The  inadequacy 
of  the  training  that  fitted  her  for  the  home  of  the  past  is 
at  once  apparent.  The  lines  along  which  her  education 
should  be  conducted  must  be  determined  by  her  nature 
and  by  the  work  that  awaits  her,  nor  will  it  do  to  shape 
her  education  too  narrowly  for  the  work  that  she  is  to  per- 
form. We  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  while 
performing  her  duty  in  the  home  she  must  also  be  enabled 
to  retain  her  place  by  man's  side  in  the  intellectual 
development  which  results  from  the  experience  of  life. 

The  progress  of  science  that  has  in  our  day  so  trans- 
formed the  outer  world  must  in  her  hands  bring  about  a 
similar  transformation  in  the  home.  The  manual  labor 
demanded  by  the  economic  conditions  of  the  past  must, 
in  our  day,  be  transformed  and  lifted  to  a  higher  plane 
through  a  practical  knowledge  of  domestic  science.  The 
hours  that  are  thus  saved  by  the  mother  from  toil  must 


290  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

be  spent  in  the  adornment  of  the  home,  in  the  pursuit  of 
literature  and  art,  and  in  the  wider  intellectual  and 
moral  interests  that  are  shaping  the  course  of  advancing 
civilization. 

Training  of  this  character  is  demanded  in  order  that 
the  wife  may  retain  her  place  by  her  husband's  side  and 
may  preserve  the  unity  of  family  life,  but  her  chief 
function  must  remain,  in  the  future  as  in  the  past,  the 
procreation  and  education  of  children.  In  present  social 
conditions  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  welfare  of  the 
children  is  entrusted  to  the  mother  much  more  than  it  was 
in  the  past  and  her  training  should  fit  her  for  this  added 
obligation.  The  mother  should  understand  the  forces 
that  are  playing  upon  the  unfolding  lives  of  her  children 
and  the  environment  into  which  they  must  enter  on  reach- 
ing maturity  so  that  she  may  wisely  preside  over  their 
physical,  mental  and  moral  upbringing. 

The  differentiation  that  has  been  wrought  in  the 
functions  of  husband  and  wife  calls  for  a  proportionate 
differentiation  in  the  educational  process  to  which  each 
in  the  making  must  be  subjected.  For  the  preservation 
of  intellectual  and  moral  companionship  between  husband 
and  wife,  a  basis  of  unity  must  be  maintained  in  then* 
education.  But  in  our  endeavor  to  secure  this  we  must 
not  lose  sight  of  the  specific  differences  in  aim  which  should 
govern  the  education  of  men  and  women. 

It  is  quite  evident  that  no  education  can  be  too  high 
or  too  good  for  woman,  but  her  education  must  be  a 
development  of  all  that  is  best  in  her  own  nature.  An 
attempt  to  mold  her  into  the  likeness  of  man  must  always 
fail,  since  their  natures  differ  as  profoundly  as  does  their 
work  in  the  world.  This  truth  should  have  governed 
woman's  education  in  the  past,  but  present  circum- 


THE  HOME  291 

stances  demand  still  more  urgently  that  it  be  recognized 
in  shaping  woman  for  her  chief  work  in  the  home  of  the 
future. 

Under  present  economic  conditions  most  women  must 
labor  for  some  years  away  from  the  confines  of  home  before 
they  undertake  to  build  homes  of  their  own.  It  does  not 
follow,  however,  that  the  needs  of  the  future  home-maker 
should  be  lost  sight  of  in  the  employments  sought  by  our 
young  women.  Their  work  in  the  industrial  world  may  be 
so  chosen  that  it  will  have  more  than  a  passing  value. 
Those  years  between  school  days  and  marriage  which  the 
young  women  are  called  upon  to  spend  as  teachers  or  as 
assistants  in  the  office,  the  shop  or  the  factory,  should 
prove  helpful  in  giving  to  them  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
the  outer  world  which  will  serve  them  well  in  the  future 
by  enabling  them,  as  nothing  else  could  do,  to  understand 
the  cares  and  the  hardships  of  husband  and  children  who 
are  compelled  to  spend  then*  days  in  the  modern  industrial 
arena. 

In  shaping  the  education  of  girls,  therefore,  the  school 
should  aim  at  the  development  of  the  future  mother  and 
homemaker,  and  while  it  must  fit  the  girls  for  other 
employments  that  may  intervene,  the  ultimate  aim  should 
not  be  lost  sight  of  and  appropriate  means  should  be 
employed  for  its  attainment.  These  will  embrace  not 
only  the  training  in  the  domestic  arts  but  a  deliberate 
formation  looking  towards,  the  mother's  function  as  the 
educator  of  children. 

Moreover,  while  the  father  may  spend  less  time  in  the 
home  than  formerly,  he  is  not  thereby  relieved  wholly 
from  the  duty  of  supervising  the  education  of  his  children 
both  in  the  home  and  in  the  school,  and  these  duties 
should  receive  adequate  recognition  among  the  educational 


292  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

aims  which  dominate  the  work  in  those  schools  that 
conduct  the  education  of  our  boys  and  young  men. 

The  home  was  the  first  school  in  order  of  time  and  it 
must  always  remain  the  first  school  in  the  order  of  im- 
portance. The  parents  are  the  natural  teachers  and  in 
Christian  society  they  are  endowed  with  special  sacra- 
mental graces  to  fit  them  for  the  proper  education  of 
their  children.  The  home  is  the  only  school  of  early 
infancy,  and  in  the  past  the  home  was  the  school  which 
dominated  the  real  and  vocational  education  of  the  child, 
leaving  to  the  school  the  formal  training  hi  the  school 
arts  and  in  the  details  of  higher  culture. 

In  many  countries  the  feeling  is  growing  that  over- 
emphasis has  been  laid  in  recent  times  upon  the  educa- 
tional process  as  conducted  in  the  school  with  a  corre- 
sponding neglect  of  the  educational  activities  of  the  home. 

The  school  is  supported  by  society  for  the  express 
purpose  of  ministering  to  the  educational  needs  of  children 
and  it  cannot  perform  this  function  too  well,  but  this 
obvious  truth  furnishes  no  justification  whatever  for  the 
neglect  by  parents  of  their  educational  duties  towards 
their  children.  The  responsibility  for  the  child's  education 
has  not  ceased  to  rest  in  the  first  place  upon  the  parents, 
and,  while  they  may  delegate  a  part  of  this  work  to  other 
agencies,  they  can  never  escape  the  responsibility  of  over- 
seeing their  children's  education  and  of  contributing 
to  it  in  proper  measure. 

In  the  industrial  transformation  through  which  we  are 
passing,  the  efficiency  of  the  home  as  an  educative  agency 
has  been  lowered  and  its  scope  has  been  greatly  curtailed; 
nevertheless,  the  family  still  exercises,  for  good  or  ill,  a 
preponderating  influence  on  the  education  of  the  child. 
In  the  first  place,  it  should  be  noted  that  the  home  environ- 


THE  HOME  293 

merit  is  calculated  to  exert  a  far  more  potent  influence 
than  that  of  the  school — both  because  the  child  is  exposed 
to  it  longer  and  because,  by  reason  of  its  priority,  it 
supplies  the  vital  apperception  masses  which  are  called 
into  play  in  the  school. 

Even  where  the  child  continues  in  school  until  the  com- 
pletion of  his  twentieth  year,  less  than  one  fifth  of  his 
time,  on  the  average,  is  spent  in  the  school,  and  when 
the  child  leaves  school  at  the  completion  of  the  fourteenth 
year,  as  happens  in  the  majority  of  cases,  the  proportion 
of  time  spent  in  the  school  is  far  less.  The  first  six  years 
of  the  child's  life  are  usually  spent  exclusively  in  the 
home,  and  even  during  the  so-called  school  years  the 
child  seldom  spends  more  than  twenty-five  to  thirty 
hours  a  week  in  the  school  and  the  school  year  consists 
of  from  thirty-six  to  forty  weeks.  Allowing  the  child 
nine  hours  a  day  for  sleep,  there  remain  for  him  5,460 
waking  hours  in  the  year  and,  even  where  the  child  is 
regular  in  his  attendance  at  the  school  during  five  hours 
each  day  and  five  days  in  each  of  forty  weeks,  he  only 
spends  1,000  waking  hours  in  school  as  against  4,460 
waking  hours  for  which  the  home  is  exclusively  responsible. 

The  love  implanted  by  nature  in  the  parents'  hearts 
for  their  children  gives  them  a  more  direct  insight  into  the 
children's  souls  and  greater  power  of  directing  their 
developing  consciousness.  The  authority  over  the 
child  vested  in  the  parent  finds  a  corresponding  faith  and 
confidence  in  the  normal  child.  These  advantages  are 
shared  by  teachers  in  proportion  to  their  training  and  to 
the  high  development  of  the  parental  quality  which  marks 
the  teacher's  vocation. 

It  is  rightly  insisted  upon  that  those  who  enter  the 
teaching  profession  shall  have  proper  qualifications  and 


294  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

* 

that  they  shall  be  adequately  trained  for  their  work. 
Those  who  undertake  the  work  of  teaching,  should  be 
familiar  with  the  advances  made  in  the  educational 
sciences,  but  should  we  not  demand  with  at  least  equal 
justice  that  those  who  take  upon  themselves  the  responsi- 
bility of  founding  homes  and  bringing  children  into  the 
world  should  learn  how  children  are  to  be  brought  up? 

There  is,  in  fact,  a  growing  realization  that  educational 
progress  cannot  be  attained  by  devoting  attention  exclu- 
sively to  the  school.  Real  advance  demands  that  the 
light  of  science  penetrate  the  home  no  less  than  the 
school.  This  is  demanded  for  the  very  existence  of  the 
family  no  less  than  for  the  good  of  the  child.  The  home 
and  the  school  must  not  be  separated  as  educative  agencies. 
The  welfare  of  the  child,  of  the  home,  of  the  state  and  of 
the  church  demands  the  closest  cooperation  in  educational 
aims  and  functions  between  the  home  and  the  school. 
This  truth  is  gaming  day  by  day  in  general  recognition. 
The  societies  for  the  study  of  education,  physical,  intellec- 
tual and  moral,  are  becoming  more  numerous.  They 
serve  to  call  attention  of  both  parents  and  teachers  to  the 
results  obtained  from  the  scientific  study  of  child  nature, 
and  they  endeavor  to  point  out  ways  in  which  the  char- 
acter of  youth  shall  be  formed  no  less  than  to  indicate 
the  lines  to  be  followed  in  developing  the  child's  aesthetic 
and  moral  nature.  In  particular  there  is  observable  in 
the  work  of  these  organizations  an  attempt  to  draw  the 
home  and  the  school  into  closer  cooperation. 

In  1899  there  was  formed  in  Belgium  the  League  de 
I'education  familiale  which  rapidly  attained  a  large 
membership.  During  the  years  immediately  preceding 
the  war,  this  society  organized  regular  lecture  courses  in 
home-making  and  on  the  educational  duties  of  parents. 


THE  HOME  295 

It  has  given  diplomas  in  home  education  to  girls  who 
passed  a  satisfactory  examination  and  evinced  a  desire  to 
devote  themselves  to  training  of  infants  in  the  home.  In 
response  to  the  rapidly  increasing  demand,  many  courses 
hi  maternal  pedagogy  for  young  women  were  given. 

The  movement  for  home  education  seems  destined  to 
receive  an  access  of  strength  from  the  philanthropic 
tendencies  of  the  day.  Abnormal  children  have  caught 
the  popular  fancy  and  they  are  calling  forth  a  great  deal 
of  effort  along  economic,  medical  and  pedagogical  lines. 
The  study  of  the  conditions  surrounding  these  children 
has  tended  to  emphasize  the  resources  of  home  education. 
In  the  orphan  and  the  foundling  we  are  brought  face  to 
face  with  the  results  which  inevitably  follow  from  the 
absence  of  the  home  environment,  and  in  the  case  of 
backward  and  defective  children  we  are  finding  more  and 
more  that  the  relief  must  come  in  great  part  from  the 
home,  whether  we  look  to  prevention  or  to  cure.  In  fact, 
there  is  a  growing  conviction  among  thoughtful  people 
that  if  any  real  progress  is  to  be  made  towards  ameliorating 
the  evils  from  which  the  children  of  our  day  suffer,  the 
beginning  of  the  work  must  take  place  in  the  home.  This 
conviction  was  manifested  by  three  International  Con- 
gresses, the  first  held  in  Liege  hi  1905,  at  which  twenty-four 
foreign  governments  were  represented;  the  second  Congress 
was  held  in  Milan  under  the  patronage  of  the  King  of 
Italy;  the  third  in  Brussels  under  the  patronage  of  Her 
Majesty,  the  Queen  of  Belgium.  The  Fourth  Inter- 
national Congress  called  to  meet  in  Philadelphia  in 
September,  1914,  was  postponed  on  account  of  the 
European  war.  The  importance  of  these  congresses  in 
emphasizing  the  necessity  of  improving  the  home  as  an 
educational  agency  is  generally  recognized. 


296  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

The  discouraging  results  so  often  following  upon  the 
educational  efforts  of  the  members  of  the  home  group 
are  due  in  large  measure  to  the  fact  that  these  efforts  are 
put  forth  at  too  late  a  period  in  the  child's  life.  Fre- 
quently no  effort  is  made  until  the  evil  has  reached  such 
an  aggravated  form  that  cure  is  well-nigh  impossible. 
Here,  as  elsewhere,  prevention  is  more  valuable  than 
cure.  A  little  enlightened  care  on  the  part  of  parents 
might  save  the  children  from  contracting  indolent  and 
vicious  habits.  Moreover,  the  cause  of  mental  arrest 
could,  in  many  cases,  be  removed  by  the  parents  if  the 
matter  were  attended  to  in  time.  In  any  case,  the 
intelligent  cooperation  of  home  and  school  is  necessary 
for  the  proper  education  of  all  children,  but  it  is  especially 
urgent  in  cases  where  defective  tendencies  manifest  them- 
selves. 

In  the  school  the  educative  process  is  governed  largely 
by  public  legislation,  but  in  the  home  the  educational 
methods  employed  are  not  subject  to  legal  control.  In 
this  field  private  initiative  holds  the  first  place  and  we 
must  look  for  progress  to  the  work  of  general  educative 
agencies,  such  as  the  International  Congress  for  Home 
Education,  and  to  the  circulation  among  intelligent 
parents  of  suitable  literature. 

Catholics  will  look  for  progress,  in  the  first  place,  to 
the  Church,  which  speaks  to  the  individual  and  the  family 
with  authority  concerning  the  duties  of  parentage  and  the 
responsibility  which  parents  must  meet  concerning  the 
education  of  the  children,  both  in  the  home  and  out  of  it. 

But  this  does  not  relieve  the  Catholic  public  from  the 
responsibility  of  interesting  themselves  in  the  public 
movement  for  the  improvement  of  home  education. 
Catholic  parents,  in  fact,  are  and  always  have  been  deeply 
interested  in  whatever  concerns  the  welfare  of  their 


THE  HOME  297 

children.  In  this  they  do  not  yield  to  the  members  of 
any  other  denomination.  It  was,  indeed,  from  this  deep 
and  abiding  Catholic  interest  manifesting  itself  through 
our  Catholic  parents  that  the  international  movement 
for  the  betterment  of  home  education  took  its  origin,  and 
Catholic  interest  has  been  manifested  in  every  phase  of  the 
movement. 

It  is  the  first  duty  of  every  social  institution  to 
perpetuate  itself.  This  implies  that  the  home  in  its 
educative  endeavors  should  hold  among  its  chief  aims 
that  of  preparing  the  children  worthily  for  family  life 
and  for  home-making.  The  actual  home  life  to  which 
the  child  is  subjected  will,  of  course,  exert  the  chief  educa- 
tive influence  in  this  direction.  If  the  ideals  of  home  life 
be  low,  we  may  scarcely  hope  that  the  school  or  any  other 
educative  agency  will  supply  for  this  fundamental  defi- 
ciency. In  improving  the  conditions  of  home  life,  by 
proper  housing,  adequate  measures  for  sanitation,  proper 
diet  and  the  artistic  embellishment  of  the  home,  we 
improve  the  externals  and  instrumentalities  of  the  home 
as  an  educative  agency,  but  the  secret  of  its  deepest  influ- 
ence must  be  found  in  the  Christian  virtue  of  the  parents. 

The  parents  who,  in  their  daily  intercourse  with  each 
other  and  with  their  children,  manifest  a  deep  and  abiding 
love  and  who  evince  a  scrupulous  care  in  the  discharge 
of  their  duties  towards  the  church,  the  state  and  their 
fellow-men,  are  maintaining  in  the  home  the  strongest 
and  deepest  of  educative  influences.  The  school  may 
second  the  efforts  of  such  parents  and  by  so  doing  secure 
a  fuller  development  of  the  child's  powers  and  a  finer 
culture  of  his  nature,  but  where  the  home  fails  to  dis- 
charge this  duty,  the  school  at  its  best  can  offer  but  a  poor 
substitute  for  the  education  which  should  be  given  in  the 
home. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

THE  CHURCH 

In  the  twenty -eighth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  according  to 
St.  Matthew,  after  narrating  the  facts  concerning  the 
death  and  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  evangelist 
gives  the  charter  by  which  the  risen  Christ  constituted 
the  Church  the  greatest  teaching  agency  of  all  times: 
"And  Jesus  coming,  spoke  to  them,  saying:  All  power  is 
given  to  me  in  heaven  and  in  earth.  Going  therefore, 
teach  ye  all  nations;  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Teaching 
them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded 
you:  and  behold  I  am  with  you  all  days,  even  to  the 
consummation  of  the  world." 

The  history  of  Christian  civilization  is  the  record  of  the 
fruitage  of  this  act  by  which  Jesus  Christ  constituted  His 
Church  an  infallible  teaching  agency  and  endowed  her 
with  the  right  and  imposed  upon  her  the  duty  of  governing 
the  children  of  the  kingdom  and  of  ministering  to  them 
sacramental  graces. 

Through  the  exercise  of  these  divine  prerogatives,  the 
Church  saved  whatever  was  worthy  in  pagan  civilization; 
she  civilized  the  nomad  and  the  barbarian;  she  lifted 
woman  to  a  place  by  man's  side;  she  protected  the  weak 
against  the  strong;  she  developed  the  ideals  of  chivalry; 
she  created  the  fine  arts;  she  became  the  prolific  mother 
of  schools  and  universities  and  established  the  great  ideals 
of  Christian  We.  For  an  outline  of  the  achievements  of 
the  Church  in  these  fields,  the  reader  is  referred  to  the 
Catholic  Encyclopedia.  This  chapter  must  be  confined  to 
the  consideration  of  some  aspects  of  the  Church  as  a 

298 


THE  CHURCH  209 

direct  teaching  agency.  The  schools  created  or  controlled 
by  the  Church  will  receive  attention  in  subsequent 
chapters. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  to  be  noted  among  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  Church  as  a  direct  teaching  agency  that 
her  mission  is  to  all  men:  it  is  not  confined  to  one  sex  or 
to  one  nation  or  to  the  immature,  but  includes  the  young 
and  the  old  alike  without  distinction  of  color  or  race  or 
nation.  It  is  the  only  educative  agency  that  claims  to 
exercise  the  teaching  function  towards  all  mankind.  The 
ordinary  school  is  confined  in  its  scope  to  the  needs  of  the 
young.  The  home  limits  its  educational  functions  to  the 
members  of  the  family.  The  educational  activity  of  the 
state  is  limited  by  national  boundaries.  But  the  Church 
transcends  all  of  these  limitations  as  she  puts  forth  her 
energies  and  exercises  her  divine  prerogatives  for  the 
earthly  well-being  and  the  eternal  salvation  of  all  men  in 
obedience  to  the  commission:  "Going  therefore,  teach  ye 
all  nations." 

The  universality  of  the  Church's  mission  to  teach 
demands  in  her  a  high  order  of  flexibility  or  plasticity 
without  which  she  could  not  reach  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
all  men  and  bend  them  to  the  yoke  of  the  Gospel.  In 
what  does  this  plasticity  consists  and  wherein  does  it 
reside?  The  Apostles,  who  were  the  Church's  first 
official  teachers,  were  men  of  very  limited  education  and 
they  could  not  have  been  expected  of  themselves  to  solve 
this  problem,  but  then*  reliance  was  on  the  power  com- 
mitted to  them  from  on  high  and  their  achievement  is 
the  joy  of  all  the  children  of  the  Church  and  the  admira- 
tion of  all  social  students  outside  her  fold.  Owing  to  her 
wonderful  plasticity,  the  Church  finds  herself  at  home  in 
all  nations,  at  all  times  and  under  all  forms  of  government. 


300  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

Macaulay,  while  refusing  to  accept  the  Church's 
teaching,  could  not  withhold  his  admiration  for  her 
wonderful  plasticity.  His  tribute  has  become  a  common- 
place but  it  still  deserves  the  earnest  consideration  of  all 
educators  who  would  endeavor  to  heighten  the  plastic 
power  of  the  educational  institutions  over  which  they 
wield  influence:  "There  is  not,  and  there  never  was  on 
earth,  a  work  of  human  policy  so  well  deserving  of  exami- 
nation as  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  The  history  of 
that  Church  joins  together  the  two  great  ages  of  human 
civilization.  No  other  institution  is  left  standing  which 
carries  the  mind  back  to  the  times  when  the  smoke  of 
sacrifice  rose  from  the  Pantheon,  and  when  cameleopards 
and  tigers  bounded  in  the  Flavian  amphitheater.  The 
proudest  royal  houses  are  but  of  yesterday,  when  compared 
with  the  line  of  the  Supreme  Pontiffs.  .  .  .  The  Papacy 
remains,  not  in  decay,  not  a  mere  antique,  but  full  of 
life  and  useful  vigor.  The  Catholic  Church  is  still 
sending  forth  to  the  farthest  ends  of  the  world  mission- 
aries as  zealous  as  those  who  landed  in  Kent  with 
Augustine,  and  still  confronting  hostile  kings  with  the 
same  spirit  with  which  she  confronted  Attila."  His- 
torians and  sociologists  from  Macaulay's  tune  to  our 
own  have  vied  W7ith  each  other  in  paying  tribute  to 
the  wonderful  educational  work  achieved  by  the  Catholic 
Church. 

The  plasticity  of  the  Church  as  a  teaching  agency  is 
not  to  be  found  in  changeableness  or  fluctuation  in  the 
doctrine  which  she  teaches.  The  doctrinal  content  of  her 
teaching  was  fixed  for  all  time  in  the  charter  through 
which  she  received  her  teaching  commission:  "Teaching 
them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded 
you."  As  age  succeeded  age,  the  Church  crystallized  out 


THE  CHURCH  801 

in  definite  and  unchanging  form  many  of  the  fundamental 
truths  committed  to  her  ministry.  These  dogmas  must 
be  accepted  without  change  or  modification  by  all  who 
enter  her  fold.  For  her  power  to  reach  all  men,  therefore, 
she  relies,  not  upon  the  intrinsic  appeal  of  her  doctrines, 
which  must  be  received  on  authority,  so  much  as  upon  the 
fruits  of  her  life  and  work. 

A  typical  instance  of  the  way  in  which  the  Church's 
teaching  finds  access  to  the  minds  of  thinking  men  of 
our  own  day  may  be  seen  in  Frederick  Wilhelm  Foerster, 
who  began  his  career  in  a  circle  of  thought  and  influence 
widely  removed  from  that  maintained  by  the  Church. 
In  a  sketch  of  his  career  given  by  Dr.  Booth  in  the  Intro- 
duction to  his  translation  of  the  Sexualethik  und  Sexual- 
padagogik,  we  are  told  of  Foerster,  "On  completing  his 
university  course,  he  felt  that  his  education  had  been  too 
abstract,  too  academic,  and  that  he  was  not  sufficiently 
in  touch  with  real  life.  He  was  thus  led  to  throw  himself 
into  the  study  of  social  questions  at  first  hand,  not  only 
in  Germany,  but  also  in  England  and  America.  His 
sympathies  were  at  first  strongly  socialistic  (he  was  even 
imprisoned  for  the  cause),  and  he  remained  aloof  from  all 
forms  of  religion;  but  with  increasing  experience  he  came 
to  regard  socialism  as  deficient  in  moral  and  spiritual 
insight.  He  perceived  that  truly  to  uplift  the  people 
something  more  is  necessary  than  a  rearrangement  of 
material  conditions,  something  more,  too,  than  the 
rather  vague  humanitarianism  of  the  socialist.  .  .  . 
Totally  uninfluenced  by  any  religious  training  or  by  any 
atmosphere  of  belief,  but  following  only  the  inner  necessi- 
ties of  his  own  social  and  educational  work,  Foerster  drew 
nearer  and  nearer  to  Christianity,  until,  after  a  still 
further  development,  he  became  convinced  that  the 


302  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

Christian  religion  was  the  sole  foundation  for  both  social 
and  individual  life.  He  thus  came  into  sharp  conflict 
with  many  of  his  former  associates,  who  advocated  secular 
education  and  wished  to  set  religion  aside  as  controversial 
and  non-essential.  To  them  he  addressed  the  following 
words  (in  an  article  written  in  September,  1909):  'To 
me  the  Christian  religion  is  not  a  mere  matter  of  taste, 
an  affair  which  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  fundamentals  of 
life;  rather  do  I  adhere  fully  to  the  words  of  the  Apostle: 
"For  other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid." 
Am  I  to  keep  silent  about  this?  Am  I  to  leave  untouched 
that  which  is  to  me  the  central  fact  of  all,  in  order  to 
devote  my  attention  to  what  is  merely  non-committal — 
although  I  clearly  see  that  it  is  a  disastrous  delusion  for 
the  educator  to  regard  this  neutral  basis  as  in  itself 
sufficient?' 

"It  will  at  once  be  obvious  that  in  Foerster's  develop- 
ment we  see  a  remarkable  illustration  of  some  of  the  most 
significant  tendencies  of  the  present  age:  for  example, 
the  movement  from  materialism  towards  religion  and  the 
reaction  against  intellectualism.  Foerster  is  one  of  those 
figures,  who,  at  a  period  of  transition,  stand  above  the 
shifting  and  transitory  opinions  of  the  crowd  and  with 
unwavering  hand  point  out  the  path  of  future  progress. 
As  Rudolph  Eucken  says,  in  The  Meaning  and  Value  of 
Life:  'A  paralyzing  doubt  saps  the  vitality  of  our  age. 
We  see  a  clear  proof  of  this  in  the  fact  that,  with  all  our 
astounding  achievements  and  unremitting  progress,  we 
are  not  really  happy.  There  is  no  pervading  sense  of 
confidence  and  security.  .  .  .  Alternative  systems, 
alternative  ideals,  fundamentally  different  in  kind, 
solicit  alike  our  adhesion.'  In  common  with  Eucken, 
Foerster  has  long  been  keenly  sensitive  to  the  doubt  and 


THE  CHURCH  303 

indecision  of  the  modern  world.  His  educational  work, 
in  particular,  has  forced  upon  him  the  absolute  necessity 
for  a  firm  basis,  a  clear  positive  ideal,  a  center  around  which 
all  the  activities  of  humanity  can  be  grouped.  He  per- 
ceives that,  after  generations  of  a  too  exclusive  occupation 
with  outward  and  technical  progress,  accompanied  by  a 
serious  neglect  of  inner  life,  we  now  stand  in  need  of  a 
moral  and  spiritual  consolidation.  Our  attention  must 
be  diverted  from  the  external  to  the  internal  needs  of 
man.  Once  let  men  turn  with  sufficient  earnestness  to 
the  central  and  inner  problems  of  our  existence,  and 
Foerster  is  convinced  that  Christianity  will  stand  forth 
as  the  only  true  foundation  of  our  whole  life  and 
civilization."1 

A  part  at  least  of  the  wide  acceptance  of  the  Church's 
teaching  is  to  be  found  in  the  divine  guarantee  of  its 
truthfulness:  "And  behold  I  am  with  you  all  days, 
even  to  the  consummation  of  the  world."  The  Catholic 
who  accepts  the  teaching  of  the  Church  as  infallible, 
finds  in  it  a  secure  and  unchanging  foundation  for  his 
conscious  life.  His  intellect  finds  a  light  in  which  to 
trace  the  varied  phenomena  of  the  world  back  to  their 
single  source.  His  will  finds  a  law  to  which  it  may  with 
dignity  yield  obedience,  and  his  emotions  find  an  object 
worthy  of  then*  undying  fidelity. 

The  suitability  of  the  Church's  teaching  to  men  who 
differ  widely  in  disposition,  temperament  and  training, 
and  who  live  in  widely  different  environments,  is  not 
to  be  found  in  the  diverse  truths  which  the  Church  holds 
in  her  custody  and  metes  out  to  each  according  to  his 
need,  so  much  as  in  the  fact  that  her  teaching  reaches  the 

1  Foerster,  Marriage  and  the  Sex  Problem,  New  York.  1912, 
p.  v  ff. 


304  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

ultimate  springs  of  human  life  and  deals  with  those  things 
which  belong  in  common  to  all  mankind.  Her  teaching 
aims  at  bringing  to  functional  activity  in  each  individual 
those  deep  underlying  principles  on  which  all  civilizations 
rest. 

If  the  Church  be  contrasted  with  the  school,  another  of 
her  characteristics  as  a  teaching  agency  will  at  once 
come  into  view.  The  school  aims  at  giving  a  preparation 
for  life;  its  efforts  are  chiefly  confined  to  children  and 
youths,  but  real  advance  in  civilization  is  made  chiefly 
by  adults  in  the  conduct  of  the  affairs  of  adult  life.  The 
secure  advances  gained  by  adult  thinking  and  adult 
activity  are  committed  to  the  schools  to  be  transmitted 
to  each  succeeding  generation.  The  Church's  mission, 
on  the  contrary,  is  for  life  and  for  adults  even  more  than 
for  children.  Her  aim  is  to  furnish  insight  to  the  indi- 
vidual in  the  midst  of  his  perplexities;  to  assist  him  to 
recover  from  the  results  of  his  mistakes  and  blunders  and 
to  lead  him  along  the  pathways  of  peace  and  perfection. 
Without  the  guidance  furnished  by  the  Church,  the 
movements  of  the  social  body  are  left  to  chance,  to  the 
blind  leading  the  blind,  and  we  find  as  a  consequence  that 
the  ebb  and  flow  of  thought  and  feeling  seldom  give  correct 
indications  of  the  direction  in  which  real  progress  lies. 

Our  busy  world  is  peopled  with  grown-up  children  who 
still  stand  in  sore  need  of  authoritative  guidance  which 
can  only  be  supplied  from  above  through  the  channels  of 
divine  revelation  and  through  divinely  constituted  author- 
ity. The  Church  finds  it  necessary  to  prepare  her  little 
ones  for  entrance  upon  adult  activities,  and  she  does  part 
of  this  preparation  through  her  direct  teaching  ministry, 
but  the  major  portion  of  it  she  confides  to  schools  which 
are  conducted  in  harmony  with  her  educational  aims. 


THE   CHURCH  305 

The  doctrines  which  the  Church  is  commissioned  by  her 
Divine  Founder  to  teach  abound  in  mysteries  which 
transcend  the  grasp  even  of  the  most  highly  developed 
human  intellect;  nevertheless,  the  Church  has  found  it 
written  in  her  duty  to  teach  to  the  rude  and  ignorant 
and  to  the  little  child  no  less  than  to  the  savant,  the  doc- 
trines of  creation,  of  the  Trinity,  of  the  Incarnation,  of 
sin  and  redemption  and  of  an  undying  life  beyond  the 
grave  where  each  individual  will  receive  of  joy  or  of  pun- 
ishment according  to  his  merits,  and  to  teach  these 
doctrines  in  a  manner  which  will  render  them  effective 
in  guiding  all  their  activities.  That  she  has  succeeded 
in  doing  this  down  through  the  ages,  when  confronted  with 
nomadic  hordes  and  unlettered  populations,  no  less  than 
when  exercising  her  teaching  functions  in  the  halls  of 
universities  and  in  Ecumenical  Councils,  is  high  testimony 
to  the  value  of  the  methods  which  she  employs.  This 
achievement  renders  it  advisable  for  the  student  of 
education,  no  matter  what  may  be  his  belief  or  unbelief, 
to  examine  dispassionately  the  elements  of  the  teaching 
process  which  have  contributed  in  so  large  a  measure  to 
the  creation  and  perpetuation  of  the  culture  and  civiliza- 
tion which  it  is  the  aim  of  all  educational  systems  in  our 
midst  to  transmit. 

The  Church  exercises  her  teaching  function  through 
the  deliberations  of  her  Councils  and  the  formal  definition 
of  her  dogmas;  she  teaches  through  her  official  literature 
and  the  decisions  of  her  courts  and  congregations;  she 
teaches  through  the  personal  life  and  example  of  her 
saints,  living  and  departed;  she  teaches  through  her  art 
and  music,  through  the  adminstration  of  her  sacraments 
and  through  her  liturgical  forms  no  less  effectively  than 
she  teaches  through  her  schools.  The  Church  teaches 


306  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

through  many  channels,  but  the  principles  underlying 
her  methods  are  always  the  same.  They  were  bequeathed 
to  her  by  her  Founder  as  an  essential  part  of  the  trust 
which  works  unfailingly  for  the  salvation  of  the  world. 
Through  the  development  of  the  pedagogical  sciences,  we 
are  gradually  coming  to  recognize  the  nature  and  validity 
of  many  of  these  principles  and  we  are  endeavoring  to 
embody  them  in  current  educational  methods,  but  if 
we  would  study  them  where  they  may  be  found  functioning 
in  their  highest  efficiency,  we  must  turn  to  the  Gospel 
and  to  the  organic  teaching  of  the  Church. 

The  Church,  in  her  teaching,  reaches  the  whole  man: 
his  intellect,  his  will,  his  emotions,  his  senses,  his  imagina- 
tion, his  aesthetic  sensibilities,  his  memory,  his  muscles, 
and  his  powers  of  expression.  She  neglects  nothing  in 
him:  she  lifts  up  his  whole  being  and  strengthens  and 
cultivates  all  his  faculties  in  their  interdependence. 

On  feast  days  and  Sundays  she  gathers  her  children 
into  her  temples  and  directs  their  worship  of  God.  Old 
and  young,  rich  and  poor,  the  learned  and  the  unlearned, 
are  commanded  alike  to  be  present,  not  only  that  they  may 
pay  to  God  their  tribute  of  worship,  but  that  they  may 
receive  grace  and  enlightenment  on  the  things  which  most 
concern  them  in  tHe  conduct  of  the  affairs  of  life  and  in  the 
attainment  of  life  everlasting. 

From  the  pulpit,  her  priests  instruct  her  children,  using 
the  familiar  forms  of  speech  to  bring  home  to  each  the 
great  fundamental  truths  which  were  preached  by  Jesus 
Christ  for  the  salvation  and  redemption  of  man.  The 
Gospel  is  read  and  the  faithful  listen  to  the  words  of 
the  great  Master  Teacher  and  are  charmed  and  held  by 
the  power  and  beauty  of  His  parables.  The  congrega- 
tion listens,  in  the  epistle  of  the  day,  to  the  words  of 


THE  CHURCH  307 

instruction  directed  by  the  Apostles  to  the  congregations 
which  they  had  formed  and  taught  to  walk  in  the  footsteps 
of  Christ.  The  priest  is  forbidden  to  preach  himself  or 
to  desecrate  the  pulpit  by  the  introduction  and  display  of 
mundane  learning.  His  duty  is  to  break  to  the  children 
of  the  Church  the  Bread  of  Life  which  Jesus  Christ  brought 
down  from  heaven.  It  is  his  blessed  privilege  to  teach  as 
one  having  authority,  for  the  message  which  he  is  sent  to 
deliver  is  the  message  which  was  entrusted  by  Jesus 
Christ  to  His  Church,  "Teaching  them  all  things  whatso- 
ever I  have  commanded  you." 

While  the  Church  thus  embodies  hi  her  teaching  in  a 
preeminent  degree  the  principle  of  divine  authority,  and 
while  she  makes  her  appeal  through  the  doctrine  and  the 
method  of  its  presentation,  which  were  entrusted  to  her, 
she  does  not  confine  her  teaching  function  to  reading  and 
preaching  to  her  people.  Her  liturgical  functions  them- 
selves have  a  teaching  power  of  a  high  order.  The  very 
edifice  in  which  Catholic  worship  is  conducted  points 
heavenward  and  tends  to  gather  up  the  successive  genera- 
tions of  the  Church's  children  into  solidarity;  it  carries 
the  mind  back  to  the  days  of  the  basilica  in  ancient  Rome 
and  to  the  ages  of  faith  which  flowered  forth  in  the  medi- 
eval cathedrals;  memories  of  the  past  look  out  from  chancel 
and  reredos,  and  the  noble  and  disinterested  deeds  of  the 
saints  are  called  to  mind  by  the  stained  glass  of  her  win- 
dows and  by  the  pictures  and  statues  which  adorn  her 
temples;  the  stations  of  the  cross  recall  the  great  tragedy 
of  Calvary  with  its  story  of  love  and  self -oblation,  while 
the  tabernacle  draws  all  hearts  to  Jesus  in  the  Sacrament 
of  His  love. 

The  cloud  of  incense  carries  the  mind  of  the  worshipper 
back  to  the  smoke  of  sacrifices  which  arose  from  the  altars 


808  PHILOSOPHY   OF   EDUCATION 

in  ancient  days  of  darkness  and  of  struggle  and  of 
Messianic  longing  and  helps  to  bring  home  a  realization  of 
the  meaning  of  the  great  sacrifice  of  redemption.  Its 
perfume  reminds  the  worshipper  of  the  sweetness  of  prayer, 
and  its  ascent  indicates  the  way  in  which  man  is  lifted  up 
to  heaven  through  the  ministry  of  prayer  and  worship. 
The  music  from  her  organ  and  from  her  chanters  stirs 
the  feelings  and  the  emotions  of  the  worshipper  and 
directs  them  heavenward  that  they  may  harmonize 
with  the  uplift  that  is  being  experienced  by  all  of  man's 
conscious  life.  Nor  is  the  worshipper  permitted  to  sit 
back  and  be  a  mere  witness  of  this  liturgical  drama.  He 
constitutes  a  living,  moving  part  of  it,  by  his  song  and  his 
prayer,  by  his  genuflection  and  his  posture,  he  enters 
into  the  liturgical  action  which,  in  its  totality,  shows 
forth  the  divine  constitution  of  human  society  by  which 
man  is  made  to  cooperate  with  his  fellow-man  in  fulfilling 
the  destiny  of  the  individual  and  of  society. 

In  this  manner  of  teaching  there  may  be  plainly  traced 
many  of  the  recognized  fundamental  principles  of  educa- 
tion. We  find  here  embodied  sensory-motor  training, 
the  simultaneous  appeal  to  the  emotions  and  to  the 
intellect,  the  appeal  to  the  memory  of  the  individual  and 
of  the  race,  the  authority  of  the  teacher  and  the  faith  of 
the  hearer,  and  the  principles  of  cooperation  and  of 
imitation. 

That  the  educators  of  today  have  lost  their  understand- 
ing of  this  great  educative  function  is  due  in  large  measure 
to  the  revolt  of  the  sixteenth  century.  In  order  to  escape 
from  the  influence  and  control  of  the  Church,  the  reformers 
set  to  work  to  frighten  the  people  away  from  the  fascina- 
tion of  her  teaching  and  of  her  worship  and  in  doing  so 
they  went  counter  to  the  great  fundamental  principles  of 


THE   CHURCH  309 

education  through  the  exercise  of  which  the  Church  had 
succeeded  and  has  succeeded  even  to  the  present  hour  in 
preserving  in  the  lives  of  her  children  the  great  doctrines 
of  revealed  truth,  not  merely  as  apprehended  by  the 
intellect  or  stored  in  the  memory,  but  as  the  living,  active 
forces  in  their  lives  which  lead  them  to  prayer  and  to 
worship,  which  lead  them  to  make  their  sacrifices,  to  offer 
their  oblations,  and  to  remain  loyal  to  the  Mother  of 
civilization. 

Psychology  is  revealing  to  the  educators  of  today  the 
fact  that  a  conscious  content  strictly  confined  to  the 
intellect  lacks  vitality  and  power  of  achievement.  Every 
impression  tends  by  its  very  nature  to  flow  out  in  expres- 
sion, and  the  intellectual  content  that  is  isolated  from 
effective  consciousness  will  be  found  lacking  in  dynamo- 
genetic  content  because  it  has  failed  to  become  structural 
in  the  mind  and  remains  external  thereto.  From  the 
evidence  in  this  field,  we  may  safely  formulate  as  a  funda- 
mental educative  principle:  the  presence  in  conscious- 
ness of  appropriate  feeling  is  indispensable  to  mental 
assimilation. 

While  there  is  a  widespread  recognition  of  the  validity 
of  this  principle,  it  has  been  found  difficult  to  embody  it 
in  the  working  methods  of  the  school.  Attempts  to  do  so 
are,  of  course,  being  made  with  greater  or  less  success, 
but  he  who  would  see  its  perfect  embodiment  must  turn 
to  the  organic  teaching  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

Not  only  does  the  Church  embody  this  principle  in  her 
liturgy,  in  her  prayers,  and  in  the  devotions  which  she 
encourages  the  faithful  to  pay  to  her  saints,  but  she  carries 
it  into  every  phase  of  her  teaching.  She  watches  over  the 
unfolding  life  of  the  child  and  the  youth  and  the  adult 
and  at  each  great  emotional  epoch  she  implants  the  germ 


310  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

of  a  great  truth  and  of  a  guiding  principle  of  conduct 
which  is  calculated  to  shape  the  newly  forming  phase  of 
conscious  life  in  accordance  with  the  Divine  Model.  For 
illustration  of  this  we  may  turn  to  her  sacramental  system. 

Her  seven  sacraments  are  seven  divinely  appointed 
channels  of  grace  through  which  her  children  receive 
assistance  from  on  high  for  the  building  up  of  supernatural 
virtues  and  for  the  development  in  their  souls  of  a  Christian 
character,  but  the  Church  also  utilizes  the  sacraments 
as  educational  means  to  implant  in  the  souls  of  her 
children  at  appropriate  times  the  germs  of  the  divine 
truths  that  will  guide  them  safely  through  this  world  of 
darkness  to  the  portals  of  eternal  life. 

When  race  instinct  stirs  to  their  depths  the  hearts  of 
the  father  and  the  mother  and  fills  them  to  overflowing 
with  joy  because  a  child  is  born  to  them,  the  Church 
brings  the  child  to  the  baptismal  font  and  in  the  presence 
of  the  rejoicing  parents  she  claims  the  new  lifef  or  the  realms 
of  light.  Hand  and  foot,  eye  and  ear  and  tongue  and 
budding  wisdom,  are  all  claimed  for  the  service  of  God 
and  for  the  higher  life  of  the  soul.  Joy  is  the  dominant 
tone  in  the  ritual  of  the  baptismal  ceremony.  The  evil 
one  and  his  machinations  are  banished,  the  fetters  of  sin 
and  of  a  material  world  are  stricken  from  the  child's  soul, 
the  heavenly  Father  is  called  upon  again  and  again  to 
protect  with  loving  kindness  and  to  nourish  with  the  food 
of  heavenly  wisdom  the  soul  that  is  just  beginning  its 
earthly  career.  Hope  and  joy  and  eternal  life  are  promised 
in  the  name  and  through  the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ. 
While  the  babe  is  being  regenerated  by  the  saving  waters 
of  baptism,  while  Divine  Grace  is  being  infused  into  his 
soul,  the  Church,  through  her  baptismal  ceremony  with 


THE  CHURCH  311 

its  symbolism  and  the  lessons  of  its  ritual,  implants  in  the 
hearts  of  the  parents  the  great  fundamental  truths  that 
must  guide  them  in  the  endeavor  to  bring  up  their  child  to 
a  life  of  virtue  and  in  their  efforts  to  teach  him  to  walk  in 
the  ways  of  the  Lord. 

As  the  child  in  his  seventh  year  emerges  from  the  life 
of  instinct  into  the  great  puzzling  outer  world,  while  his 
mind  is  still  full  of  questioning  wonder  and  principles  and 
fundamental  laws  are  for  him  shrouded  in  obscurity  and 
seeming  to  blend  into  their  opposites  like  the  colors  of 
the  sunset  sky,  the  Church  leads  him  into  the  confessional 
and  with  loving  kindness  helps  him  to  read  his  riddles 
and  to  master  the  great  fundamental  principles  which 
must  govern  his  conduct. 

Nor  does  her  ministration  cease  with  the  enlightenment 
of  his  conscience.  His  emotions  need  organization  and 
direction  and  this,  too,  she  supplies.  Nature  prepares  the 
little  girl  at  this  period  through  her  doll  play  for  future 
motherhood,  and  the  Church  assists  both  the  boy  and 
girl  in  adjusting  themselves  to  the  dawning  of  emotions 
and  passions  which  trouble  the  quiet  of  their  souls  without 
declaring  to  them  their  meaning  or  their  ultimate  function. 
At  this  juncture,  the  Church  leads  the  children  to  the 
communion  rail  and  in  the  midst  of  flowers,  bridal  wreaths, 
lights  and  music,  accompanied  by  all  the  joy  that  breathes 
in  her  ritual,  teaches  them  the  great  lesson  of  love  for 
Jesus  and  for  fellow-man;  she  teaches  them  the  deep 
truth  that  disinterested  love  is  the  key  to  the  world  of 
emotion  and  passion  that  is  stirring  the  depths  of  their 
souls.  She  impresses  upon  them,  in  a  way  that  they  will 
never  forget,  that  all  love  that  harmonizes  with  the  love 
of  God  and  fellow-man,  all  love  that  is  founded  on  truth 
and  justice  and  that  is  permeated  with  the  spirit  of 


312  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

generous  self -sacrifice,  leads  to  joy  and  gladness;  whereas 
the  passion  that,  ignoring  the  rights  of  others  and  the 
welfare  of  society,  is  blinded  by  selfishness  and  out  of 
harmony  with  the  love  of  God  and  fellow-man,  leads  to 
wretchedness  here  and  to  eternal  misery  hereafter. 
Moreover,  the  Church  is  not  content  with  her  own  direct 
and  official  teaching  in  this  matter.  She  calls  upon  the 
parents  and  friends  of  the  child  to  join  with  her  in  filling 
his  soul  on  the  happy  occasion  of  his  First  Holy  Com- 
munion with  such  joy  and  sweetness  that  it  will  leave  a 
strong  and  abiding  memory  with  him  to  the  end  that,  in 
the  stress  and  storms  of  temptation  and  passion  which 
will  break  over  him  later  on,  he  may  return  again  and 
again  to  the  Sacred  Banquet  and  there  renew  hi  the  love 
of  Jesus  Christ  his  strength  for  the  combat. 

With  the  advent  of  adolescence,  the  flow  of  emotion  is 
towards  independence  of  action,  towards  individual 
responsibility,  and  towards  the  necessity  of  fighting,  if 
need  be,  for  the  maintenance  of  ideals.  This  may  be 
seen  in  the  boys'  growing  willingness  to  fight  for  his 
honor  and  for  the  honor  of  father  and  mother  and  of 
home  and  country.  The  Church  takes  advantage  of  this 
epoch  in  the  emotional  life  of  the  child  and,  through  the 
the  administration  of  the  sacrament  of  Confirmation, 
in  the  joy  of  Pentecost  renewed,  fans  his  courage  into 
flame,  impressing  upon  him  the  truth  that  while  it  is 
manly  to  fight  for  one's  honor  and  one's  home,  and  honor- 
able to  die  for  one's  country,  there  rests  upon  him  a  still 
higher  obligation  to  fight  for  the  honor  of  his  Heavenly 
Father  and  to  die,  if  need  be,  for  the  Kingdom  into  which 
he  was  born  by  baptism  and  in  which  he  is  continually 
nourished  by  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Church,  hi  her  teaching,  does  not  fail  to  take 


THE  CHURCH  313 

advantage  of  the  transition  from  youth  to  manhood.  As 
maturity  approaches,  the  bonds  of  family  solidarity  are 
gradually  dissolved,  while  the  young  man  and  young 
woman  are  brought  face  to  face  with  life  and  are  called 
upon  to  take  their  part  in  the  social  world  and  to  make 
their  contribution  to  the  welfare  of  the  race.  The  Church 
studies  them  and  treats  them  according  to  their  needs. 
If  she  finds  that  the  race  instincts  in  them  are  strong  and 
that  in  their  hearts  the  cry  for  home,  for  wife  or  husband 
and  children  is  louder  and  clearer  than  any  other  call, 
she  blesses  them  and  in  her  nuptial  Mass,  while  pouring 
out  to  them  her  sympathy  and  her  joy,  she  engraves  upon 
their  minds,  filled  with  enthusiasm  and  lofty  ideals,  and 
on  their  hearts,  overflowing  with  love,  the  lessons  that 
will  help  them  to  make  their  many  sacrifices  in  order  that 
they  shall  be  two  in  one  flesh  and  that  they  may  bring 
into  the  world  children  and  educate  them  for  heaven. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  she  finds  that  as  maturity  ap- 
proaches a  call  to  the  higher  life  is  felt  and  that  the  tide 
of  youthful  ardor  turns  towards  wider  fields  of  action 
and  towards  closer  union  with  the  Saviour  and  Redeemer 
of  the  world,  she  leads  them  into  her  sanctuary  and 
shows  them  how  their  lives  may  be  rendered  enduringly 
helpful  by  being  interwoven  with  the  lives  of  their  fellows 
in  religious  organizations  which  work  unceasingly  for  the 
uplift  of  the  race  to  higher  spiritual  levels.  Finally, 
for  such  of  her  sons  as  feel  themselves  called  to  share 
intimately  in  the  priesthood  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  be 
the  bearers  of  succor  to  those  who  labor  and  are  heavily 
burdened,  the  Church  offers  the  Sacrament  of  Holy 
Orders.  In  each  and  every  case,  whether  in  the  ceremony 
of  religious  profession,  or  in  the  conferring  of  Holy  Orders, 
the  ritual  of  the  Church  breathes  solemn  joy.  On  these 


314  PHILOSOPHY  OF   EDUCATION 

occasions  the  Church  appeals  to  all  that  is  best  in  the 
candidate,  and  in  his  soul,  glowing  with  zeal  and  enthusi- 
asm, she  implants  the  great  fundamental  truths  that  must 
guide  him  and  support  him  through  all  the  coming  years 
of  labor  and  of  patient  endurance. 

At  the  last,  when  death  calls  a  child  of  the  Church  to 
his  reward,  she  is  by  his  side  with  the  sacrament  of  Extreme 
Unction  to  close  his  senses  to  the  sights  and  sounds  of 
this  world  and  to  open  to  him  the  portals  of  that  larger 
life  to  which  there  shall  be  no  end,  and  in  his  heart,  stirred 
with  deep  emotions  in  the  presence  of  the  coming  change, 
and  in  the  hearts  of  relatives  and  friends,  softened  by 
grief  and  sympathy,  she  reaffirms  the  great  fundamental 
truth  that  we  are  in  this  world  as  wayfarers  and  as 
children  far  from  home. 

The  Church,  through  all  the  forms  of  her  organic 
teaching,  aims  at  cultivating  feeling,  but  she  does  not 
allow  her  teaching  activity  to  culminate  in  feeling,  which 
she  values  chiefly  as  a  means  to  an  end;  she  employs  it 
to  move  to  action  and  to  form  character  and  she  never 
leaves  it  without  the  stamp  and  the  guidance  of  intellect. 
As  the  feelings  glow  to  incandescence,  she  imparts  to  them 
definite  direction  and  animates  them  with  a  purpose  which, 
after  the  emotions  and  the  feelings  subside,  remains  as  a 
guiding  principle  of  conduct. 

The  Church's  method  of  employing  the  imitative  tend- 
ency of  child  and  man  to  lead  them  step  by  step  up  out 
of  the  valleys  of  sense  into  the  realm  of  the  spiritual  life, 
is  characterized  by  the  same  wisdom  and  deep  insight  into 
human  nature  that  marks  her  dealings  with  the  feelings 
and  emotions. 

The  infant's  conduct  is  governed  by  instinct.  As  he 
progresses  from'infancy  through  childhood  towards  adult 


THE  CHURCH  315 

life,  the  control  of  his  conduct  is  gradually  assumed  by 
his  intelligence  and  free  will,  acting  in  the  light  of  individ- 
ual experience,  gained  for  the  most  part  through  imitation. 
Whosoever,  therefore,  would  control  the  conduct  of  the 
child  and  shape  the  character  of  the  adult,  must  achieve 
his  end,  in  large  measure,  through  the  proper  use  of  the 
imitative  tendency  which  forms  so  striking  a  characteristic 
of  human  life  in  all  its  stages  of  development.  The 
human  individual  tends  to  copy  in  his  own  life  the  char- 
acter and  the  actions  of  those  whom  he  reveres  and  loves. 
As  light  is  lit  from  light,  so  virtue  springs  from  virtue, 
and  through  imitation  noble  deeds  multiply  themselves 
in  the  lives  of  others.  But,  unfortunately,  imitation  is 
not  limited  to  the  propagation  of  virtue;  it  is  equally 
potent  in  transmitting  vice  and  in  multiplying  evil  deeds; 
hence  the  necessity  of  controlling  the  imitative  instinct 
in  the  light  of  a  larger  experience  and  a  higher  wisdom 
than  that  possessed  by  the  individual.  In  this  respect 
the  Church  brings  to  her  task  the  long  experience  of  the 
ages  and  the  wisdom  of  supernatural  guidance.  The  con- 
formity of  her  methods  to  the  nature  of  the  imitative 
phenomena  is  becoming  increasingly  clear  in  the  light  of 
our  growing  knowledge  of  psychology. 

The  extent  of  imitative  activity  varies  among  different 
individuals  and  in  the  same  individual  at  different  times. 
It  is  greatest  in  the  early  days  of  childhood  and  diminishes 
progressively  with  the  advancing  years,  but  it  remains  a 
potent  factor  throughout  life  for  even  the  most  inde- 
pendent of  thinkers. 

Imitation  in  man  is  governed  by  two  laws,  one  of 
which  controls  its  intensity,  while  the  other  determines  its 
direction.  The  former  of  these  laws  alone  is  operative  in 
early  childhood  where  intense  imitation  without  fixed 


316  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

direction  may  be  observed.  The  latter  law  gradually 
emerges  as  ideals  are  built  up  through  imitation  of  selected 
models.  These  laws  may  be  formulated  as  follows: 

I.  The  strength  of  the  imitative  impulse  is  in  inverse 
ratio  to  the  distance  which  the  imitator  perceives  to  exist 
between  his  chosen   model   and   his   present    conscious 
power  of  achievement. 

II.  In  any  line  of  human  endeavor,  the  model  that  is  in 
most  complete  harmony  with  the  experience  of  the  imitator 
and  that  embodies  his  ideal  of  perfection  in  a  given  direc- 
tion serves  to  orientate  his  imitative  activity. 

The  infant,  having  no  ideals  to  fix  the  direction  of  his 
imitation  and  no  moral  standards  by  means  of  which  he 
may  discriminate  between  good  and  evil,  imitates  the 
conduct  of  those  around  him  without  thought  of  the 
effect  which  such  imitation  may  have  upon  himself.  If 
he  seems  to  evince  a  preference  for  evil  in  the  models 
of  his  choice,  such  preference  is  not  due  to  the  imitative 
phenomena  in  itself  but  to  the  instinctive  tendency  to 
revert  to  primitive  type.  This  tendency  may  find  its 
explanation  in  the  doctrine  of  recapitulation  or  in  the 
transmission  of  acquired  characteristics,  or  in  a  process 
of  selection.  Whatever  the  explanation  may  be,  the  fact 
that  the  tendency  exists  and  that  it  is  at  times  very 
pronounced  is  only  too  evident  and  it  must  be  taken  into 
account  in  our  dealings  with  the  child. 

The  incubator  chick,  during  the  first  couple  of  days 
after  its  emergence  from  the  shell,  will  instinctively  answer 
the  cluck  by  which  the  mother  hen  calls  her  little  ones  to 
share  in  the  food  which  she  has  found  for  them,  but  if  the 
cluck  is  not  heard  for  some  days,  the  instinct  is  lost  and 
the  call,  coming  later,  will  not  be  responded  to. 

From  this  illustration,  we  may  learn  that  an  instinct 
may  be  suppressed  by  denying  it  opportunity  to  function 


THE  CHURCH  317 

when  it  first  appears.  Now,  the  culture  epoch  theory 
urges  that  opportunity  be  provided  for  the  child  to  act 
out  all  the  savage  ways  of  his  savage  ancestors,  but  the 
Catholic  Church  adopts  an  opposite  course.  She,  follow- 
ing in  the  footsteps  of  her  Divine  Founder,  insists  that 
the  child  be  protected  from  exposure  to  evil  and  that  he 
be  provided  with  suitable  models.  In  her  eyes  an  evil 
deed  is  doubly  evil  when  performed  in  the  presence  of  the 
defenseless  child  or  when  it  is  allowed  to  spread  its  con- 
tagion through  publicity  of  any  sort.  The  adult  may, 
indeed,  take  measures  to  protect  himself,  while  the 
peculiarly  helpless  condition  of  the  child  makes  a  strong 
appeal  for  protection,  and  the  Church  continues  to 
point  out  in  the  words  of  her  Divine  Founder  the  punish- 
ment which  a  refusal  to  heed  this  appeal  entails:  "He 
that  shall  scandalize  one  of  these  little  ones  that  believe 
in  Me,  it  were  better  for  him  that  a  millstone  should  be 
hanged  about  his  neck,  and  that  he  should  be  drowned 
in  the  depths  of  the  sea."1 

The  Church  stresses  the  obligation  that  rests  upon  each 
one  of  us  to  edify  his  neighbor,  and  she  provides  all  her 
children  with  models  of  sanctity  which  are  so  close  to 
them  that  the  imitative  tendency  in  its  intensity  may 
secure  adequate  expression,  while  she  holds  up  before  their 
eyes,  as  the  ideals  which  must  give  direction  to  all  their 
imitation,  the  lives  of  Jesus  and  of  His  Blessed  Mother. 
Hence  she  lifts  to  her  altars  saints  taken  from  every  walk 
of  life:  from  childhood  and  old  age;  from  the  hovels  of  the 
poor  and  the  palaces  of  the  rich;  from  among  savage 
tribes  and  civilized  nations;  from  among  the  unlettered 
and  the  savant.  Her  offices,  day  by  day,  recall  the 
heroism  and  the  saintly  deeds  of  a  multitude  of  her 
children  who  thus  continue  to  exert  their  influence  upon 

1  Matt,  xviii.  C. 


318  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

child  and  man  in  leading  them  towards  the  perfect  model 
of  human  conduct — Jesus  Christ. 

In  thus  utilizing  the  imitative  impulse  as  a  means  of 
uplift  and  of  salvation,  the  Church  is  following  in  the 
footsteps  of  Christ  and  of  His  apostles.  The  mandate  to 
imitate  was  frequently  on  the  lips  of  the  Saviour:  "Be 
ye  therefore  perfect  as  your  Heavenly  Father  is  perfect," 
"But  everyone  shall  be  perfect  if  he  be  as  His  Master." 
"If  any  man  will  follow  Me,  let  him  deny  himself,  take 
up  his  cross  and  follow  me."  "As  the  Father  hath  sent 
Me  so  I  send  you;"  "This  is  My  commandment,  that  you 
love  one  another,  as  I  have  loved  you."  The  Apostles 
evinced  a  similar  reliance  on  the  principle  of  imitation: 
"For  yourselves,  know  how  ye  ought  to  follow  us;"  "To 
make  ourselves  an  example  to  you  to  follow  us."  "For 
unto  this  you  are  called:  Because  Christ  also  suffered  for 
us  leaving  you  an  example  that  you  should  follow  His 
steps." 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  Church  should 
hold  among  her  most  precious  treasures  the  concrete 
embodiment  of  high  truths  and  noble  virtues  in  the 
lives  of  her  confessors  and  martyrs  and  in  the  lives  of  her 
children  of  every  rank  and  condition.  She  intensifies  the 
imitative  impulse  by  teaching  her  children  to  love  and 
admire  Jesus  Christ  and  His  saints  whom  she  constantly 
keeps  before  their  eyes  as  the  models  which  should  control 
their  imitative  activity  both  in  its  intensity  and  in  its 
direction.  She  commands  each  one  of  her  children  to 
edify  his  brother  by  the  example  of  his  conduct,  and 
places  a  special  obligation  upon  those  who  are  called  to 
her  ministry  or  to  membership  in  her  religious  families  to 
edify  the  faithful  by  their  disinterestedness,  their  obedi- 
ence to  law  and  their  lives  of  self -conquest. 

The  science  of  education  is  stressing  more  and  more  the 


THE  CHURCH  $19 

principles  that  the  preservation  of  unity  and  continuity 
in  the  developmental  processes  demand  that  the  instincts 
and  reflexes  be  utilized  as  the  bases  of  habits,  that  the 
preservation  of  symmetry  in  the  developing  mind  is  neces- 
sary both  to  culture  and  to  productive  scholarship,  that 
the  development  of  the  will  and  of  the  aesthetic  faculty, 
and  the  cultivation  and  control  of  the  emotions,  no  less 
than  the  training  of  the  cognitive  powers,  are  necessary 
to  culture,  that  the  remedy  for  materialism  may  be  found 
in  the  methods  of  study  and  teaching,  no  less  than  in  the 
content  of  the  curriculum,  and  that  the  power  of  adjust- 
ment to  a  rapidly  changing  environment  fixes  the  measure 
of  human  vitality. 

The  embodiment  of  these  principles  in  Christ's  method 
of  teaching  is  obvious.  He  constantly  appealed  to  the 
emotions  and  instincts,  to  the  love  of  parent  for  offspring, 
to  physical  appetites,  to  human  ambitions,  to  the  desire 
for  wealth  and  power,  and  He  makes  these  purely  human 
tendencies  lift  the  soul  into  an  understanding  of  the  higher 
truths  of  revelation.  He  appealed  to  the  whole  man  and 
developed  every  faculty  by  which  the  soul  is  endowed. 
He  did  not  let  the  minds  of  His  followers  rest  in  dry 
formulae,  or  in  the  things  of  sense  which  He  constantly 
used  to  lift  up  the  mind  to  a  view  of  immaterial  truths. 
He  always  adjusted  Himself  to  the  attitude  of  His  followers 
and  answered  the  questions  that  formed  themselves  in 
their  minds. 

These  and  similar  educational  principles  have,  without 
being  understood  by  her  children,  always  animated  the 
organic  teaching  of  the  Church.  They  were  all  clearly 
embodied  in  her  ritual  and  in  her  life  during  the  darkest 
hours  of  the  ninth  century,  as  they  were  during  the  brilliant 
centuries  that  were  adorned  by  the  Fathers  and  by  the 
Schoolmen. 


820  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

Those  who  left  the  fold  of  Christ  during  the  sixteenth 
century  carried  with  them  as  much  of  human  science  as 
was  possessed  by  those  who  remained  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Church.  No  longer  guided  by  the  spirit  of  the  Church, 
the  reformers  abandoned  these  principles;  they  suppressed 
feeling  as  an  unworthy  accompaniment  of  revealed  truth; 
accusing  the  Church  of  idolatry,  they  extinguished  the 
lights  on  her  altars  and  banished  the  incense  from  her 
sanctuaries,  they  broke  the  stained  glass  of  her  windows 
and  the  images  of  her  saints,  they  suppressed  her  sacra- 
ments and  her  ritual;  ignorant  of  the  laws  of  imitation, 
they  would  have  neither  guardian  angels  nor  patron 
saints;  not  knowing  the  vital  necessity  of  expression, 
they  taught  that  faith  without  works  was  sufficient  for 
salvation;  with  the  warning  of  the  Apostles  ringing  in 
their  ears,  "the  letter  killeth  it  is  the  spirit  that  quick- 
eneth,"  they  accepted  the  rigid  standard  of  the  written 
word  in  lieu  of  the  living  voice  of  the  Church. 

As  a  consequence  of  their  failure  to  embody  these 
educative  principles  in  their  teaching,  revealed  truths 
were  extinguished  one  by  one  in  their  midst,  thus  leaving 
the  descendants  of  confessors  and  of  martyrs  wandering 
in  exterior  darkness,  where,  like  the  Children  of  Israel, 
they  were  compelled  to  make  bricks  without  straw. 
But  the  day  of  salvation  is  at  hand.  Delving  in  the 
natural  sciences,  the  children  of  this  generation  are  gaming 
a  clearer  realization  of  some  of  the  laws  that  underlie 
the  life  and  growth  of  the  mind,  and  lifting  up  their  eyes 
they  find  these  laws  embodied,  perfectly,  in  the  organic 
teaching  of  the  Catholic  Church,  which  like  a  cloud  by 
day,  and  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night  will  lead  them  back  into 
the  Kingdom. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  SCHOOL 

• 

The  well-being  of  society  in  all  its  phases  demands  that 
whatever  of  value  it  has  inherited  from  the  past  or  distilled 
out  of  its  own  experience  be  preserved  and  passed  on  to 
succeeding  generations,  and  experience  gradually  demon- 
strated that  this  work  called  for  the  creation  and  main- 
tenance of  the  school. 

The  home,  the  church  and  the  state  have,  at  all  times, 
been  profoundly  interested  in  education.  On  it,  through- 
out the  entire  period  of  human  history,  their  perpetuity 
and  prosperity  have  depended.  The  home  was  itself  the 
primitive  school  and  it  has  never  ceased  to  be  an  important 
educative  agency.  At  the  present  time  it  not  only  assumes 
the  sole  responsibility  for  the  education  of  the  infant,  but, 
willingly  or  unwillingly,  it  continues  to  perform  important 
educational  functions  for  the  child  and  the  youth.  The 
Christian  Church,  likewise,  includes  teaching  among  its 
organic  functions. 

The  home,  the  church  and  the  state  have  specific  func- 
tions to  perform  which,  in  the  increasing  complexity  of 
social  development,  tend  to  absorb  more  and  more  of 
then*  energy  and  render  it  necessary  for  each  of  them  to 
delegate  a  part,  at  least,  of  their  teaching  function  to  the 
school.  The  school,  which  was  thus  called  into  existence 
to  supplement  the  educational  work  of  the  three  funda- 
mental social  institutions,  became  the  means  of  enlarging 
and  perfecting  the  educative  process  itself. 

Apart  from  its  duty  to  perpetuate  itself,  the  sole  purpose 
of  the  school  is  to  prepare  the  children  to  take  then- 
proper  places  in  society  and  in  its  various  institutions. 

821 


322  PHILOSOPHY   OF  EDUCATION 

As  an  institution  it  is  not  fundamental  and  it  cannot  be 
autonomous:  it  must  meet  the  demands  of  the  institutions 
which  it  was  created  to  serve  and  remain  subject  to  their 
control,  hence  the  best  mode  of  approach  to  the  study  of 
the  nature  and  functions  of  the  school  is  through  its 
historical  development.  For  an  adequate  presentation 
of  this  phase  of  the  subject,  the  reader  must  turn  to  the 
history  of  education.  In  this  chapter  we  can  do  no  more 
than  briefly  indicate  the  stages  through  which  the  school 
has  passed  in  reaching  its  present  position  in  our  social 
economy. 

The  school  did  not  exist  in  primitive  life:  its  origin  in 
early  times  may  be  traced  to  various  ceremonies  associated 
with  the  religious  worship  of  the  people.  These  cere- 
monies were  practiced  before  the  hunt,  the  military 
expedition,  the  harvest,  the  storing  of  food,  and  all  other 
socially  important  events.  Myths  and  legends,  religious 
and  intellectual  beliefs,  superstitions  and  the  various 
traditions  of  the  tribe,  were  all  embodied  in  these  cere- 
monies, the  most  important  of  which,  from  an  educational 
standpoint,  is  that  of  initiation  which  was  conducted  for 
the  girls  by  the  women  and  for  the  boys  by  the  men  of 
the  tribe. 

The  initiation  ceremonies  occurred  at  the  beginning  of 
adolescence  and  sometimes  they  were  continued  at 
intervals  through  several  years,  but  they  always  culmin- 
ated in  the  admission  of  the  candidate  to  adult  membership 
in  the  tribe.  To  them  may  be  traced  the  inception  of 
several  prominent  characteristics  of  the  school.  The 
instruction  was  deliberate  and  was  conducted  by  a  select 
group  of  individuals  who  ^poke  in  the  name  and  with  the 
authority  of  the  entire  tribe. 

The  educational  value  of  savage  initiations  has  often 


THE   SCHOOL  323 

been  commented  upon.1  Many  of  their  striking  features 
may  still  be  found  in  college  hazing  and  in  the  conferring 
of  degrees  by  various  societies,  and  there  are  not  wanting 
at  the  present  day,  educators  who  still  defend  many  of  the 
principles  involved.  Through  the  mutilations  inflicted 
in  the  initiation  ceremony,  the  boy  is  taught  to  endure 
pain;  through  exposure,  he  is  taught  to  endure  hardship 
and  hunger;  through  the  necessity  of  meeting  the  wishes 
of  those  conducting  the  ceremonies,  he  is  taught  to  obey 
and  reverence  his  elders.  In  the  course  of  the  ceremonies 
he  is  also  made  to  realize,  through  practical  experience, 
the  duty  of  supplying  his  family  with  the  necessities  of 
life  and  to  feel  a  sense  of  solidarity  with  his  people.  In 
the  ceremonies  which  consist  in  large  part  of  a  crude 
dramatization  of  the  religious  beliefs,  politics  and  history 
of  the  people,  the  individual  comes  into  possession  of  the 
social  inheritance  of  the  tribe.  In  this  way,  also,  he 
learns  whatever  is  known  by  the  tribe  concerning  the 
operations  of  the  great  forces  of  nature.  Nor  do  the  elders 
usually  allow  this  opportunity  to  pass  without  imparting 
to  the  candidate  a  working  knowledge  of  the  practical 
affairs  of  life.  He  is  taught  how  to  procure  and  prepare 
food,  how  to  make  a  fire,  how  to  defend  himself  and  those 
depending  upon  him  from  wild  beasts  and  dangerous 
reptiles  and  human  enemies,  and  these  practical  affairs 
of  life  are  closely  linked  to  his  religious  beliefs  and  are 
often  performed  as  a  part  of  religious  worship. 

Among  most  primitive  peoples,  the  father  of  the  family 
or  head  of  the  tribe  exercised  the  functions  of  the  priest- 
hood, and,  in  consequence,  presided  over  the  instruction 
imparted  through  the  various  rites  and  ceremonies.  In  a 
comparatively  early  stage  of  progress,  however,  there 

*  Cf.  Monroe.  Hist.  Ed.,  Chap.  I. 


324  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

arose  a  demand  for  explanations  of  the  phenomena  of 
nature,  as  well  as  for  a  training  in  appropriate  forms  of 
conduct  and  industry.  This  growing  complexity  and 
difficulty  of  the  paternal  office  led  to  a  differentiation 
which  resulted  in  the  establishing  of  schools  and  of  a  teach- 
ing class.  The  forces  through  which  this  differentiation 
was  actually  brought  about  vary  among  different  peoples, 
but  in  most  of  them  the  same  developmental  principles 
were  operative.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  under  the  pressure 
of  life,  there  resulted  differentiation  of  structure  and 
specialization  of  function. 

The  home  has  continued  to  train  the  children  in  the 
practical  duties  of  life  down  to  our  own  day.  The  need 
which  called  for  the  explanation  of  natural  phenomena 
and  the  accumulated  wisdom  of  the  past  was  so  closely 
related  to  the  religion  of  the  people  that  it  was  met  by  the 
priest  rather  than  by  the  parent  and  for  long  ages  the 
functions  of  the  priest  and  the  teacher  remained 
undiff  erentiated . 

The  constant  growth  of  religious  belief  and  religious 
ceremonial  became  so  burdensome  to  the  memory  that 
it  led,  in  the  course  of  time,  with  every  civilized  people, 
to  the  development  of  some  form  of  written  language, 
which,  in  turn,  added  one  more  item  to  the  things  to  be 
taught. 

In  China,  where  an  ideographic  language  was  developed 
at  a  very  early  date,  education  became  an  extremely 
difficult  and  time-consuming  process  and  was  of  necessity 
confined  to  a  limited  portion  of  the  population,  This, 
together  with  the  extreme  value  which  he  set  upon  the 
past,  led  Confucius  to  establish  a  type  of  school  which 
remained  unchanged  to  the  present  day.  Those  pupils 
who,  after  many  years  of  study,  obtain  a  mastery  of  the 


THE  SCHOOL  325 

ancient  literature  and  of  the  ancient  ways,  are  entrusted 
with  the  offices  of  government,  while  the  less  fortunate 
pupil  takes  up  the  office  of  teaching.  The  school  is  sup- 
ported by  the  fees  paid  by  the  students.  The  great 
majority  of  the  pupils  who  enter  the  schools  fail  to  attain 
even  the  standard  required  for  the  teacher  and  re-enter 
the  ordinary  walks  of  life. 

Chinese  education  may  be  taken  as  typical  of  the 
various  Oriental  systems.  In  it  three  of  the  aims  of  the 
school  become  clearly  defined,  viz.,  preparation  for  the 
duties  of  government,  preparation  to  continue  the  teaching 
office,  and  the  continuance  of  the  traditional  religious 
teaching. 

There  is  no  room  in  this  educational  system  for  progress. 
The  past  is  to  be  handed  on  without  change  or  alteration 
of  any  kind.  Society  relies  upon  the  school,  in  large 
measure,  to  perpetuate  the  form  of  government  and  all 
other  social  institutions.  The  home,  of  course,  continues 
to  teach  the  children  their  duty  towards  their  parents 
and  ancestors,  but  it  is  to  the  school  that  the  nation  looks 
for  the  preservation  of  the  body  of  Confucian  doctrine 
that  is  to  support  and  sustain  the  teaching  of  the  home. 
Social  heredity  is,  consequently,  rendered  rigid;  more 
rigid,  in  fact,  than  the  instinctive  inheritance  of  many  of 
the  higher  animals. 

It  always  must  remain  one  of  the  main  objects  of  the 
school  to  transmit  the  past  and  to  bind  into  solidarity  the 
past,  present  and  future,  but  there  must  be  sufficient 
freedom  in  the  manner  of  this  transmission  to  make  room 
for  the  new  with  the  old,  and  where  rapid  progress  is  to 
be  achieved,  the  new  must  be  given  a  certain  preference 
over  the  past,  since  the  new  may  offer  the  means  of 
advancement  and  of  securing  better  adjustment  to  new 


326  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

environment.  Religion  has  often  been  accused  of  over 
conservatism  in  its  educational  work,  but,  among  the 
Chinese,  the  school  is  not  controlled  by  a  church,  it  is 
committed  to  private  enterprise  under  the  guidance 
of  the  state. 

A  type  of  school  more  closely  related  to  the  schools  of 
the  Western  world  takes  its  origin  among  the  Hebrews. 
With  this  people,  secular  and  religious  life  remain  closely 
identified.  "As  their  main  religious  belief  in  the  existence 
of  one  God,  the  Creator  and  Conserver  of  the  universe, 
inspired  their  form  of  government,  so  it  dominated 
everything  else  in  their  national  and  domestic  life.  It  was 
so  closely  associated  with  their  national  spirit  that  to  be 
patriotic  meant  also  to  be  devoutly  religious,  the  two 
ideas  of  religion  and  patriotism  being  inseparable.  No 
nation  in  ancient  times  had  so  exalted  an  idea  of  temporal 
government;  none  surely  gave  woman  so  high  a  position 
in  the  family,  or  the  family  so  important  a  place  in  the 
state;  none  had  the  means  they  employed  to  cultivate 
the  spirit  of  individualism  either  in  public  or  in  private 
life."1 

Among  the  Hebrews,  religion  and  its  teaching  became 
the  means  of  strengthening,  purifying  and  elevating  both 
the  home  and  the  state.  It  was  the  center  from  which  all 
their  life  radiated.  During  the  Patriarchal  period,  from 
Abraham  to  Moses,  the  functions  of  priest  and  teacher 
remained  associated  with  the  head  of  the  family  or 
patriarch.  By  the  law  of  Moses,  a  priestly  caste  was 
created  and  the  public  functions  of  religion  were  taken  out 
of  the  home,  but  the  teaching  function  remained  to  the 
father  down  to  the  rise  of  the  Monarchy.  During  these 
first  two  periods  of  the  nation's  life,  education  was  con- 

1  McCormick,  Hist,  of  Ed.,  Washington,  1915,  p.  24. 


THE  SCHOOL  327 

ducted  in  the  home  and  the  father  was  commanded  to 
impart  it  to  his  children.  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  thy  whole  heart,  and  with  thy  whole  soul, 
and  with  thy  whole  strength.  And  these  words  which 
I  command  thee  this  day,  shall  be  in  thy  heart:  and  thou 
shalt  tell  them  to  thy  children,  and  thou  shalt  meditate 
upon  them  sitting  in  thy  house,  and  walking  on  thy 
journey,  sleeping  and  rising.  And  thou  shalt  bind  them 
as  a  sign  on  thy  hand,  and  they  shall  be  and  shall  move 
between  thy  eyes.  And  thou  shalt  write  them  in  the 
entry,  and  on  the  doors  of  thy  house."1 

From  this  command  imposed  upon  the  father,  it  may  be 
seen  that  for  the  worthy  discharge  of  the  parental  office, 
in  addition  to  the  knowledge  of  religion,  the  ability  to 
write  was  required,  which,  from  the  beginning  of  the  school 
as  a  separate  institution,  has  always  been  numbered 
among  its  chief  functions.  There  does  not  appear, 
however,  to  have  existed  among  the  Hebrews  during  the 
Patriarchal  or  Tribal  periods  a  school  as  a  separate 
institution. 

"The  schools  of  the  Prophets,  in  which  young  men 
prepared  for  the  prophetical  mission,  came  into  existence 
about  the  time  of  Samuel.  They  flourished  in  many 
places  during  the  Royal  period.  An  elderly  prophet, 
who  acted  as  a  president  or  master,  ruled  these  institutions 
somewhat  after  the  manner  of  our  religious  communities. 
All  the  students,  who  were  not  necessarily  levites,  lived 
together.  Their  first  studies  were  sacred  theology,  law 
and  tradition.  They  also  learned  astronomy,  mathe- 
matics, Jewish  history,  music  and  poetry.  Much  time 
was  devoted  to  prayer  and  recollection."2 

1  Deut.  vi,  5-9. 

1  McCormick,  ibid..  25. 


328  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  the  schools  of 
the  prophets  at  once  replaced  the  home  as  a  teaching 
agency.  There  are  many  evidences  that  education  had  a 
comparatively  wide  diffusion  among  the  people.  "The 
Scribes,  who  were  originally  copyists,  later  became  inter- 
preters of  the  law,  and,  in  a  broad  sense,  the  teachers 
of  the  people.  They  arose  as  the  successors  of  the  'sons 
of  the  prophets'  during  the  period  of  the  Babylonian 
captivity.  Although  they  constituted  a  lay  order,  priests 
and  levites  were  not  excluded  from  them.  Esdras  was 
both  priest  and  scribe.  They  taught  the  people  on  the 
porches  of  the  temple,  and  in  the  synagogues.  In  later 
times,  they  established  high  schools,  and  taught,  besides 
the  Hebrew  language,  law  and  religion,  a  considerable 
amount  of  astronomy,  and  higher  mathematics,  and  in  the 
third  century,  B.  C.,  offered  courses  in  Greek  literature 
and  philosophy."1  These  schools,  and  the  schools  subse- 
quently developed  in  the  synagogues,  continued  to  remain 
more  or  less  closely  associated  with  the  priesthood. 

The  church  among  the  Jewish  people  developed  as  an 
offshoot  from  the  home  and  the  school  gradually  developed 
as  the  offspring  of  the  church.  In  the  Patriarchal  period, 
the  patriarch,  or  head  of  the  family,  also  exercised  the 
controlling  religious  functions  and  powers,  hence  it  was 
quite  natural  that  when  this  power  split  off  from  the  home 
it  should  retain  its  control  over  the  home  and  over  educa- 
tion. The  state,  as  it  gradually  evolved,  remained  at 
first  an  integral  part  of  the  church  and  later  on  it  remained 
dependent  upon  the  church.  The  church  among  the 
Hebrews  may,  therefore,  be  said  to  control  the  home  and 
to  have  created  the  school  and  the  state,  both  of  which 
it  continued  to  control. 


1  McCormick,  ibid.,  26. 


THE  SCHOOL 

With  extreme  state  control  and  with  the  absence  of 
any  strong  religious  organization  or  church,  education, 
as  we  have  seen,  became  rigid  and  inflexible  among  the 
Chinese;  whereas,  among  the  Hebrews,  where  the  church 
was  predominant,  there  is  witnessed  a  high  level  of  life, 
great  social  vigor,  and  steady  progress.  Facts  such  as 
these  should  give  pause  to  those  modern  educators  who 
seem  to  regard  it  as  the  first  condition  for  progress  to 
eliminate  from  the  control  of  education  the  church  and 
all  forms  of  religious  teaching. 

The  Christian  church  inherited  the  Jewish  traditions 
and  was  naturally  influenced  in  the  development  of  her 
schools  by  Jewish  ideals,  but  she  was  scarcely  less  pro- 
foundly influenced  by  the  schools  of  Greece  and  Rome. 
It  is  true  that  the  Church  totally  rejected  the  religion  of 
the  Pagans  and  many  of  their  ideals  of  life  were  abhorrent 
to  her,  but  she  preserved  and  utilized  whatever  of  good 
she  found  in  the  art,  in  the  philosophy,  in  the  literature, 
and  in  the  education  of  those  peoples. 

In  prehistoric  times,  the  education  of  the  Hellenes  was 
apparently  conducted  in  the  home,  but  here  as  elsewhere 
the  school  was  gradually  separated  from  the  home  and  its 
work  was  conducted  by  specially  trained  teachers.  In 
Sparta  the  state,  instead  of  the  church,  took  over  to 
itself  from  the  home  the  function  of  education  and  its 
control.  The  dominant  aim  in  the  Spartan  school  was 
preparation  for  the  state.  The  state  owned  the  child. 
It  claimed  and  exercised  the  right  of  determining  whether 
or  not  infants  should  live.  Those  who  were  deemed  un- 
promising were  condemned  to  death  by  starvation  or  ex- 
posure. The  home  training  of  the  boys  ended  at  seven, 
at  which  time  they  were  admitted  to  the  schools  conducted 
by  state  officials.  Here  they  lived  together,  sharing  the 


330  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

same  food  and  sleeping  apartments,  dressing  alike,  and 
having  all  things  hi  common,  for  everything  belonged  to 
the  state.  Their  food  and  clothing  were  scanty;  their 
beds  consisted  of  the  tops  of  weeds;  every  device  was 
employed  that  seemed  calculated  to  develop  hardy 
warriors  So  completely,  in  fact,  did  military  training 
dominate  hi  the  Spartan  school  that  teaching  to  read  and 
•write  was  committed  to  private  instruction.  Music  was, 
however,  retained  because  of  its  effect  on  the  martial 
spirit.  Even  in  the  training  of  women,  which  was 
conducted  in  the  home,  the  dominant  idea  was  preparation 
to  beget  warriors  for  the  state.1  From  these  schools  the 
ideals  of  home,  and  the  moral  virtues,  which  it  was  the 
business  of  religion  to  instill  in  other  nations,  were  ban- 
ished. The  pupils  were  indeed  taught  to  tell  the  truth  to 
their  superiors  and  to  revere  and  obey  them,  but  they  were 
taught  to  lie  to  others  and  to  steal,  provided  they  did  it 
with  sufficient  cunning  and  courage  to  escape  detection. 
Slaves  were  made  drunk  to  exhibit  the  ugliness  of  the 
vice  and  when  they  threatened  to  become  too  numerous, 
the  youths  were  directed  to  murder  them  and  were  thus 
accustomed  at  an  early  date  to  bloodshed  and  cruelty. 

There  was  little,  evidently,  in  the  Spartan  school  that 
the  Church  could  take  over  and  make  part  of  her  own.  Its 
influence  on  her  was  negative.  It  served,  as  it  should 
still  serve,  for  a  warning  against  the  dangers  of  an  un- 
checked control  by  the  state  of  the  fundamental  social 
institutions — home  and  school. 

In  Athens  the  school,  at  an  early  date,  achieved  separa- 
tion from  both  the  home  and  the  state.  It  was  con- 
ducted by  private  individuals,  and  from  the  time  of  Solon 
was  controlled,  to  a  certain  extent,  by  the  state.  The 

1  Cf.  McCormick,  Hist.  Ed.,  p.  30. 


THE  SCHOOL  331 

ideals  developed  in  the  Athenian  schools  and  the  cur- 
riculum used  served  to  lift  Greek  education  far  above 
that  given  by  other  nations.  The  school  early  differenti- 
ated into  two  forms:  the  gymnasium,  in  which  physical 
training  was  conducted;  and  the  music  school,  which  also 
included  letters  and  arithmetic.  The  schools  were  sup- 
ported by  the  fees  paid  by  the  pupils.  For  the  wealthier 
children,  they  were  conducted  in  special  buildings  for  the 
purpose,  whereas  the  schools  for  the  poor  were  either 
held  in  the  open  or  in  the  temples. 

The  Athenian  school  contained  in  itself,  in  a  preeminent 
degree,  the  elements  of  progress.  Private  initiative  was 
given  a  large  measure  of  freedom.  The  home  interest 
and  influence  was  maintained.  The  state  exerted  its 
power  in  the  direction  of  enrichment  and  stimulation 
of  education  rather  than  in  that  of  repression.  The 
central  aim  of  education  grew  out  of  the  Athenian's  ideal 
of  individual  freedom  and  of  a  perfect  mind  in  a  perfect 
body.  With  the  Spartan,  the  individual  had  value  only 
in  the  measure  in  which  he  strengthened  the  state;  with 
the  Athenian,  the  value  of  the  state  was  measured  by 
what  it  could  do  for  the  individual.  It  will  thus  be 
seen  that  Athenian  civilization  had  achieved  a  large  meas- 
ure of  what  was  later  on  to  be  perfected  by  the  Christian 
church.  In  fact,  the  Athenian  school,  both  through  its 
form  and  content,  exerted  and  still  exerts  a  marked  and 
positive  influence  on  Christian  schools. 

Rome  exhibits  a  third  type  of  pagan  school.  Down  to 
250  B.  C.,  when  Greek  influence  began  to  be  felt,  the 
home  usually  performed  the  function  of  education. 
With  the  Roman  of  those  days  the  home  was  the  dominant 
social  institution,  the  church  and  the  state  were  both 
subordinate.  The  father  enjoyed  supreme  authority  in 


332  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  family.  He  might  expose  his  children  or  sell  them 
into  slavery  as  he  saw  fit;  he  alone  had  the  determination 
of  the  training  and  conduct  of  all  the  members  of  the 
family.  Nevertheless,  he  was  expected  to  train  his 
children  for  citizenship  and  for  military  service,  and  to 
this  he  must  have  added  elementary  teaching  in  reading 
and  writing,  since  these  arts  were  widely  diffused  among 
the  people.  The  Roman  was  expected  to  know  the  law, 
and  the  home  gave  him  the  necessary  equipment  for  an 
understanding  of  it.  In  this  his  culture  chiefly  consisted. 
The  religion  of  Rome  also  centered  in  the  home;  the 
father  was  the  priest.  The  fundamental  virtue  inculcated 
was  pietas  which  formed  the  ethical  basis  of  the  family 
and  which  was  afterwards  extended  to  the  wider  circles 
of  society. 

During  the  first  100  years  of  growing  Greek  influence, 
from  250  to  148,  B.  C.,  schools  gradually  arose  in  Rome. 
They  were  called  into  existence  by  the  necessity  of  making 
provision  for  the  reception  and  understanding  of  Greek 
culture.  From  this  time  forward,  the  Greek  language  was 
considered  essential  to  a  liberal  education.  The  schools 
of  the  grammarians  and  rhetoricians  which  grew  up  to 
meet  this  need  were  created  neither  by  the  state  nor  the 
home.  They  imparted  much  of  the  content  of  the  Athen- 
ian schools,  while  they  attained  the  practical  aim  of  the 
Roman,  and  hence  they  made  the  study  of  literature 
and  rhetoric  a  means  for  the  development  of  forensic 
oratory.  In  the  latter  days  of  the  Republic,  and  during 
the  Empire,  we  find  several  types  of  schools  incorporated 
into  the  Roman  system  of  education.  The  elementary 
school  ministered  to  the  needs  of  the  child  from  about  six  to 
twelve  years  of  age.  Secondary  education  was  imparted 
in  Greek  and  Latin  grammar  schools,  which  gradually 


THE   SCHOOL  538 

came  to  embrace  teaching  in  astronomy,  music,  mathe- 
matics, etc.  The  young  man,  on  issuing  from  these 
schools,  entered  the  military  service  or  went  to  a  rhetorical 
school  where  he  received  special  training  for  public  speak- 
ing. From  these  schools,  if  desirous  of  the  highest  educa- 
tion attainable,  he  entered  one  of  the  great  universities 
of  the  time. 

The  development  of  the  Roman  school  offers  a  good 
illustration  of  the  pressure  which  in  our  own  day  is 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  school  by  the  practical  needs  of 
society.  When  Greek  culture  was  transplanted  to 
Rome,  it  became  necessary  that  the  Roman  school  should 
be  freed  and  broadened  in  its  scope  to  the  end  that  it 
might  transmit  to  the  young  Roman  the  means  of  securing 
the  power  and  prestige  which  it  contained.  In  like  man- 
ner, with  the  growth  of  the  Empire  and  its  wealth,  pressure 
from  the  economic  system  was  also  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  school.  The  school,  the  mere  creature  of  the  home 
which  it  was  in  the  earlier  Roman  days,  was  unable  to 
meet  these  new  demands,  hence  we  find  it  in  the  Republic 
and  in  the  early  Empire  freed,  in  large  measure,  from 
narrow  home  control  and  subject  to  a  rigid  control  by 
neither  church  nor  state. 

In  studying  the  origin  of  the  Christian  school,  account 
must  be  taken  of  the  fact  that  Christ  was  the  great  Master 
Teacher  and  that  He  founded  His  Church  as  a  teaching 
agency.  The  purpose  of  Christ's  teaching  and  of  the 
teaching  of  His  Church  was  religious  and  moral;  it  reached 
out  to  the  individual  and  lifted  him  up  to  a  new  dignity 
as  a  child  of  God;  it  protected  him  against  the  unre- 
strained authority  of  the  home  and  of  the  state.  Neither 
the  father  nor  the  state,  according  to  this  teaching,  had 
the  right  to  pronounce  death  sentence  on  an  infant,  no 


334  PHILOSOPHY  OF   EDUCATION 

matter  how  unpromising  the  future  of  his  physical  life 
might  seem.  The  Church  naturally  continued  to  draw 
upon  the  teaching  power  of  the  home  as  did  the  Jews  and 
the  early  Romans.  But  when  the  resources  of  the  home 
proved  insufficient  to  accomplish  her  purposes,  she  estab- 
lished schools  of  her  own.  Naturally,  the  object  of  these 
early  schools  was  to  supplement  the  organic  teaching  of 
the  Church  and  to  protect  the  children  of  the  Church 
from  the  errors  and  vices  of  paganism.  Her  first  schools, 
accordingly,  were  designed  to  impart  instruction  in  Chris- 
tian Doctrine  to  the  pagans  who  sought  admission  to  her 
fold.  These  "catecumenal"  schools,  as  they  were  called, 
were  conducted  by  the  bishops  and  the  clergy  and  con- 
cerned themselves  with  the  teaching  of  the  doctrines  and 
liturgical  forms  of  the  Church  and  in  giving  the  required 
moral  and  ascetical  training  to  fit  the  candidate  for  the 
worthy  reception  of  the  sacrament  of  baptism.  Out  of 
these  schools  there  gradually  emerged  the  catechetical 
schools  which  became  the  Christian  academies  for  the 
teaching  of  philosophy  and  theology.  From  the  circum- 
stance that  these  schools  were  usually  conducted  in  con- 
nection with  the  Episcopal  sees,  they  served  as  seminaries 
for  the  professional  training  of  the  priesthood.  In 
Alexandria,  Caesarea,  and  elsewhere,  these  catechetical 
schools  broadened  out  in  their  courses  of  instruction  until 
they  included  Greek  philosophy  and  literature,  history, 
dialectics  and  the  sciences. 

The  primary  reason  assigned  by  the  great  teachers  of 
the  catechetical  schools  for  introducing  into  their  cur- 
riculum profane  subjects  is  the  relationship  which  these 
courses  bear  in  themselves  to  religious  truth,  and  the 
need  that  existed  of  using  such  knowledge  to  prevent 
Christians  from  being  misled  by  the  wrong  uses  that  were 


THE   SCHOOL  335 

being  made  of  natural  truths  by  the  pagan  world.1  The 
core  of  the  instruction  imparted  by  the  Christian  schools 
from  the  beginning  was  the  body  of  religious  truth  revealed 
by  Jesus  Christ  and  taught  by  the  Church.  Around  this 
the  other  elements  of  the  curriculum  gradually  took  their 
place  and  were  modified  at  various  tunes  in  accordance 
with  the  needs  of  society. 

St.  Basil,  towards  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  organ- 
ized monastic  life  in  the  East  and  suggested  that  the  monks 
should  take  up  the  work  of  instructing  both  children  and 
adults.  He  also  commends  the  practice  of  not  confining 
instruction  to  the  Scriptures.  In  his  address  to  young 
men  on  the  right  use  of  Greek  literature,  he  says:  "So  we, 
if  wise,  shall  take  from  heathen  books  whatever  befits  us 
and  is  allied  to  the  truth  and  shall  pass  over  the  rest." 
St.  John  Chrysostom,  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  century, 
urges  the  necessity  of  giving  a  Christian  training  to  the 
children  in  the  home,  and,  where  this  is  not  possible,  he 
urges  the  parents  to  send  their  children  to  the  monas- 
teries, even  though,  by  so  doing,  they  should  have  to 
sacrifice  their  higher  literary  training.  "In  fact,"  says 
he,  "the  choice  lies  between  two  alternatives;  a  liberal 
education  which  you  may  get  by  sending  your  children 
to  the  public  schools,  or  the  salvation  of  their  souls  which 
you  secure  by  sending  them  to  the  monks.  Which  is  to 
gain  the  day,  science  or  the  soul?  If  you  can  unite  both 
advantages,  do  so  by  all  means;  but  if  not,  choose  the  more 
precious." 

From  this  to  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  Christian  educa- 
tion was  imparted  in  the  cathedral  schools  and  the  Scola 
Cantorum  which  came  to  be  associated  with  each  episcopal 
see.  In  parish  schools,  which  imparted  elementary 

»  Cf.  McCormick.  Hist,  of  Ed.,  pp.  71,  74. 


336  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

education  to  the  children  of  the  people,  and  in  the  great 
monastic  schools,  which  offered  an  education  both  to  the 
laity  and  to  those  who  intended  to  enter  the  monastic 
orders,  St.  Benedict  taught  the  dignity  of  labor,  and  the 
arts  of  peace.  These  schools  were  all  created  and  sup- 
ported by  the  Church.  In  some  instances,  fees  were  paid 
by  the  pupils,  but  in  many  cases  the  education  was 
entirely  free. 

Charlemagne  brought  the  power  of  the  state  to  bear  on 
the  development  of  education  by  perfecting  the  palace 
school,  by  appointing  Alcuin  as  minister  of  education 
for  the  Empire,  and  by  issuing  capitularies  in  which  abbots 
and  bishops  were  urged  to  exert  all  their  power  for  the 
spread  of  education  among  the  people.  In  response  to 
this  imperial  command,  we  find  abbots  and  bishops  every- 
where cooperating  with  the  civil  authorities  in  behalf  of 
the  schools.  Free  schools  were  established  in  many  of  the 
cities  and  the  monastic  schools,  in  many  instances,  added 
to  free  instruction,  free  board  and  clothing.  Alfred  the 
Great  exerted  a  similar  influence  on  the  schools  of  England. 
The  education  of  women  was  also  provided  for  in  the 
convents  for  women  and  by  the  nuns  who  frequently 
conducted  schools  for  the  young  boys  and  girls  in  the 
villages  and  cities  where  they  were  ^ated.  The  sons  of  the 
nobility,  from  the  age  of  seven  or  eight,  were  trained  in 
the  palaces  of  the  feudal  lords.  Under  the  favor  and  with 
the  assistance  of  both  church  and  state,  schools  were 
multiplied  throughout  Christendom.  They  grew  in 
excellence  and  were  shaped  into  system  by  the  scholastics. 

In  the  Renaissance,  the  revival  of  the  pagan  classics 
gave  a  new  impetus  to  education  and  modified  the  current 
curriculum  in  many  respects.  The  movement  for  popular 
education  grew  steadily  and  the  school  was  granted  a 


THE   SCHOOL  337 

large  freedom,  for  the  Church  not  only  supplied  schools 
of  her  own  in  connection  with  her  parishes,  her  cathedrals 
and  her  monasteries,  but  she  encouraged  free  schools 
whether  supported  by  guilds,  by  the  towns,  or  by  private 
enterprise.  Nor  was  education  confined  to  the  upper 
classes.  On  the  contrary,  every  provision  possible  was 
made  for  the  education  of  the  children  of  the  poor.  The 
Third  Council  of  Lateran,  held  in  1179,  passed  the  follow- 
ing decree:  "The  Church  of  God,  being,  like  a  good  and 
tender  mother,  obliged  to  provide  for  the  spiritual  and 
corporal  wants  of  the  poor,  is  desirous  of  procuring  for 
children  destitute  of  pecuniary  resources,  the  means  of 
learning  to  read  and  of  advancing  in  the  study  of  letters, 
and  ordains  that  every  cathedral  church  shall  have  a 
master  who  will  instruct  gratis  the  ecclesiastical  students 
of  that  church  and  the  poor  scholars,  and  that  a  grant  be 
assigned  him  which,  by  sufficing  for  his  maintenance,  will 
thus  open  the  door  of  the  school  to  studious  youths.  A 
free  school  shall  be  reopened  in  the  other  churches  and 
monasteries,  where  there  formerly  existed  funds  for  this 
purpose.  .  .  .  Nobody  shall  exact  any  remuneration, 
either  for  the  license  to  teach,  or  for  the  exercise  of  teach- 
ing, even  if  his  right  be  based  on  custom.  And  the  license 
to  keep  a  school  shall  not  be  refused  to  any  person  who  can 
justify  his  capacity  for  it.  Offenders  shall  be  deprived 
of  their  ecclesiastical  living,  for  it  is  meet  that,  in  the 
Church  of  God,  he  who  hinders  the  progress  of  the  churches 
by  selling,  from  cupidity,  the  permission  to  teach,  should 
be  himself  deprived  of  the  fruit  of  his  labor."1 

The  interests  of  both  the  church  and  the  state  were 
promoted  by  schools  whose  aim  was  to  develop  Christian 
virtues  no  less  than  to  impart  skill  in  the  arts,  and  knowl- 

1  Mansi.  Coilectio  Ampl.  Concil.  Tit.  5,  Cap.  i. 


838  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

edge  of  literature,  theology,  philosophy  and  the  sciences. 
Naturally,  therefore,  education  continued  to  spread  among 
the  people  and  schools  to  multiply  until  the  Protestant 
Reformation  checked  the  movement  by  confiscating  the 
funds  of  bishoprics  and  monasteries  and  exciting  the 
people  to  break  away  from  the  influence  of  the  Church. 

The  reformers,  unable  to  support  schools  in  place  of  the 
church  schools  which  they  destroyed,  invoked  the  aid 
of  the  state.  As  Protestant  denominations  continued  to 
multiply,  so  did  their  power  to  maintain  schools  dimmish 
until  in  our  own  time  the  task  has  been  very  largely 
abandoned  to  the  state.  Moreover,  with  the  separation 
of  the  church  and  state  in  the  United  States,  the  Catholic 
school  came  to  occupy  a  different  position  towards  society 
and  the  state  from  that  held  by  its  predecessor  in  Catholic 
times. 

During  the  Colonial  period  in  this  country,  and  for  a 
considerable  time  thereafter,  the  schools  of  the  people 
were  chiefly  church  schools.  The  Spanish  Franciscans 
in  Florida  and  New  Mexico  established  schools  in  1629, 
"four  years  before  the  establishment  of  the  oldest  school 
in  the  thirteen  eastern  colonies."  The  Catholic  schools 
throughout  the  colonies  were  chiefly  taught  by  priests 
who  later  on  brought  to  their  assistance  religious  teaching 
communities  of  men  and  women.  The  early  schools  in 
the  non-Catholic  colonies  were  poor  and  scattered.  In 
Massachusetts  these  schools  which  were  ordinarily  main- 
tained in  connection  with  the  church,  came  in  time  to  draw 
their  support  from  public  assessments,  and  while  the 
church  and  state  were  still  united,  laws  were  passed  com- 
pelling the  establishment  of  schools  in  the  different 
districts,  but  there  was  no  system;  each  school  conducted 
its  work  independently  up  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 


THE   SCHOOL  339 

century.  Horace  Mann,  who,  acting  as  the  secretary  of 
the  Massachusetts  Board  of  Education,  in  1837,  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  state  school  system,  gives  a  graphic 
description  of  the  condition  in  which  he  found  the  schools 
of  Massachusetts  in  his  day:  "In  this  Commonwealth, 
there  are  about  3,000  Public  Schools,  in  all  of  which  the 
rudiments  of  knowledge  are  taught.  These  schools,  at 
the  present  time,  are  so  many  distinct,  independent 
communities;  each  being  governed  by  its  own  habits, 
traditions,  and  local  customs.  There  is  no  common, 
superintending  power  over  them;  there  is  no  bond  of 
brotherhood  or  family  between  them.  They  are  strangers 
and  aliens  to  each  other.  The  teachers  are,  as  it  were, 
embedded,  each  in  his  own  school  district,  and  they  are  yet 
to  be  excavated  and  brought  together,  and  to  be  estab- 
lished, each  as  a  polished  pillar  of  a  holy  temple.  As  the 
system  is  now  administered,  it  any  improvement  in  prin- 
ciples or  modes  of  teaching  is  discovered  by  talent  or 
accident,  in  one  school, — instead  of  being  published  to  the 
world,  it  dies  with  the  discoverer.  No  means  exist  for 
multiplying  new  truths,  or  even  for  preserving  oL  ones."1 

According  to  the  same  authority,  the  physica.  condition 
of  the  schools  of  Massachusetts,  in  1837,  was  in  keeping 
with  their  methods  and  want  of  organization.  Speaking 
of  the  need  of  improvement  in  school  buildings,  he  says: 
"The  construction  of  schoolhouses  involves,  not  the  love 
of  study  and  proficiency,  only,  but  health  and  length  of 
life.  I  have  the  testimony  of  many  eminent  physicians 
to  this  fact.  They  assure  me  that  it  is  within  their  own 
personal  knowledge,  that  there  is,  annually,  loss  of  life, 
destruction  of  health,  and  such  anatomical  distortion  as 
renders  life  hardly  worth  possessing,  growing  out  of  the 

1  Horace  Mann,  Lectures  on  Education,  Boston,  1855,  p.  18. 


340  PHILOSOPHY  OF   EDUCATION 

bad  construction  of  our  schoolhouses.  Nor  is  this  evil 
confined  to  a  few  of  them  only.  It  is  a  very  general 
calamity.  I  have  seen  many  schoolhouses,  in  central 
districts  of  rich  and  populous  towns,  where  each  seat 
connected  with  a  desk,  consisted  only  of  an  upright  post 
orpedestal,  jutting  up  outof  the  floor,  the  upper  end  of  which 
was  only  about  eight  or  ten  inches  square,  without  side 
arms  or  backboard;  and  some  of  them  so  high  that  the  feet 
of  the  children  in  vain  sought  after  the  floor.  They  were 
beyond  soundings.  Yet,  on  the  hard  top  of  these  stumps, 
the  masters  and  misses  of  the  school  must  balance  them- 
selves, as  well  as  they  can,  for  six  hours  in  a  day.  All 
attempts  to  preserve  silence  in  such  a  house  are  not  only 
vain,  but  cruel.  Nothing  but  absolute  empalement 
could  keep  a  live  child  still,  on  such  a  seat;  and  you  would 
hardly  think  him  worth  living,  if  it  could."1  The  means 
of  heating,  of  ventilation  and  of  keeping  out  the  rain  and 
storms  are  described  as  on  a  level  with  the  seating  devices. 

In  conditions  such  as  these,  it  was  inevitable  that  the 
state  should  take  hold  of  the  situation  and  lift  the  school 
into  efficiency.  The  movement  begun  by  the  Legislature 
of  Massachusetts,  which,  in  1837,  established  the  Massa- 
chusetts Board  of  Education,  rapidly  spread  into  the  other 
states. 

While  the  schools  throughout  the  colonial  period  and 
up  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  were  chiefly 
denominational,  the  government  not  infrequently  helped 
to  support  them  out  of  the  public  funds.  This  phase 
of  the  question  was  brought  to  an  issue  in  New  York 
in  1840.  Catholic  and  denominational  schools  in  New 
York  City,  prior  to  that  time,  received  their  proportionate 


1  Horace  Mann,  ibid.,  p.  28. 


THE   SCHOOL  341 

share  of  the  common  school  fund.  The  non-denomina- 
tional schools  which  had  gradually  grown  up  were  con- 
trolled by  the  Public  School  Society  which  received  and 
distributed  their  proportion  of  the  public  school  fund. 
In  this  arrangement  the  schools  were  controlled  by 
religious  and  private  associations  and  supported,  in  part, 
by  the  state.  In  1824,  through  the  efforts  of  the  Public 
School  Society,  state  support  was  withdrawn  from 
denominational  schools.  This  condition  proved  unsatis- 
factory for  many  reasons,  as  may  be  seen  from  Governor 
Seward's  illuminating  message  to  the  Legislature  on 
January  1,  1840.  His  message  also  reveals  another  of 
the  grave  problems  pressing  for  solution  which  demanded 
the  assistance  of  the  school.  "The  children  of  foreigners, 
found  in  great  numbers  in  our  populous  cities  and  towns, 
and  in  the  vicinity  of  our  public  works,  are  too  often 
deprived  of  the  advantages  of  our  system  of  public 
education,  in  consequence  of  prejudices  arising  from 
difference  of  language  or  religion.  It  ought  never  to  be 
forgotten  that  the  public  welfare  is  as  deeply  concerned 
in  their  education  as  in  that  of  our  own  children.  I  do 
not  hesitate,  therefore,  to  recommend  the  establishment 
of  schools  in  which  they  may  be  instructed  by  teachers - 
speaking  the  same  language  with  themselves,  and 
professing  the  same  faith.  There  would  be  no  inequality 
in  such  a  measure,  since  it  happens  from  the  force  of 
circumstances,  if  not  from  choice,  that  the  responsibilities 
of  education  are  in  most  instances  confided  by  us  to  native 
citizens,  and  occasions  seldom  offer  for  a  trial  of  our 
magnanimity  by  committing  that  trust  to  persons  differing 
from  ourselves  hi  language  or  religion.  Since  we  have 
opened  our  country  and  all  its  fulness  to  the  oppressed  of 
every  nation,  we  should  evince  wisdom  equal  to  such 


342  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

generosity  by  qualifying  their  children  for  the  higher 
responsibilities  of  citizenship."1 

The  people  of  the  city  and  state  of  New  York,  however, 
were  not  ready  to  receive  and  act  upon  the  broad  and 
equitable  policy  outlined  by  their  Governor.  His  message 
precipitated  a  controversy  between  the  Catholics  and 
non-Catholics  of  New  York  which  resulted  in  the  discon- 
tinuance of  the  Public  School  Society  and  the  establish- 
ment of  the  state  school  system.  The  controversy 
called  nation-wide  attention  to  the  importance  of  religious 
instruction  in  the  schools. 

The  brilliant  discussions  of  Archbishop  Hughes,  the  leader 
of  the  Catholic  party,  convinced  Catholics  that  the  attend- 
ance of  Catholic  children  at  the  state  schools  as  then  con- 
ducted meant  a  proximate  danger  to  then*  faith,  while  the 
bitter  antagonism  of  the  non-Catholic  press  and  public  made 
it  evident  that  the  state  schools  would  not  be  modified  so  as 
to  meetthe  needs  of  Catholics.  Archbishop  Hughes  turned 
immediately  to  the  work  of  calling  into  existence  parish 
schools  to  meet  the  needs  of  Catholic  children.  During  the 
remaining  years  of  his  life  his  watchword  was:  "Let 
parochial  schools  be  established  and  maintained  every- 
where; the  days  have  come,  and  the  place,  in  which  the 
school  is  more  necessary  than  the  Church."1 

From  1840  on,  state  schools  were  rapidly  developed 
throughout  the  country.  The  National  Government, 
however,  has  no  immediate  jurisdiction  over  the  school, 
but  it  encourages  and  promotes  education  through  a 
national  bureau  established  for  the  collection  and 
dissemination  of  statistics  and  whatever  other  matter  may 


1  N.  Y.  Assembly  Documents,  1840,  Vol.  i,  p.  5. 
1  For   an   account  of  this  controversy  and  its  results  see  Burns, 
Catholic  School  System,  New  York,  1908,  Chap.  IX. 


THE  SCHOOL  343 

seem  helpful  to  schools  of  all  sorts.  The  several  states 
built  up  and  support  their  own  systems  of  education, 
but  the  schools  which  they  embrace  fail  to  meet  the 
essential  requirements  of  the  Catholic  Church,  hence 
today,  in  the  same  street  one  sees  the  public  school  and 
the  parochial  school.  In  the  same  city  non-sectarian 
colleges  are  rivalled  by  colleges  under  denominational 
control.  Nor  is  the  situation  here  outlined  confined  to 
the  opposition  of  Catholic  schools  to  state  schools.  Many 
Protestant  denominations  have  found  it  feasible'  to 
develop  their  own  schools,  while  schools  drawing  their 
support  from  private  endowment  and  governed  by 
private  enterprise  still  continue  to  flourish  in  our  midst. 

The  state  schools  are  supported  by  the  taxes  paid  by 
Catholic  and  non-Catholic  alike.  When  the  public 
support  was  withdrawn  from  Catholic  schools,  the 
Church  addressed  herself  at  once  to  the  onerous  task  of 
building  up  a  school  system  of  her  own  in  which  Catholic 
immigrants  might  be  taught  in  then1  own  language  and 
in  which  the  secure  foundations  of  the  Catholic  faith 
might  be  laid.  During  the  fourscore  years  that  have 
elapsed,  she  has  continued  her  work  of  education  in  her 
schools,  not  because  she  denies  the  right  of  the  state  to 
instruct  its  citizens,  but  she  regards  the  training  of  every 
man  and  woman  in  the  truths  of  religion  a  matter  of  para- 
mount importance,  both  for  temporal  and  for  eternal 
welfare. 

Horace  Mann,  Henry  Barnard,  and  the  other  educa- 
tional leaders  who  contributed  in  so  large  a  measure  to 
the  upbuilding  of  the  state  school  systems  of  this  country, 
were  not  unmindful  of  the  child's  urgent  need  of  religious 
instruction,  but  they  were  convinced  that  this  instruction 
could  be  effectively  given  in  the  home  and  in  the  church. 


344  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

While  they  banished  religious  instruction  from  the 
state  schools,  they  had  no  desire  whatever  to  banish  it 
from  the  lives  of  the  people.  The  experiment,  however, 
which  they  initiated  has  proven  conclusively  that  when 
religion  is  banished  from  the  school  it  will  not  be  kept 
alive  by  the  home  and  the  church. 

Scarcely  a  generation  had  passed  after  the  establishment 
of  non-religious  public  schools  before  the  plan  which  was 
adopted  as  a  compromise  rendered  necessary  by  the  con- 
flict of  religious  creeds  was  held  up  as  an  ideal  and  a 
generation  of  educators  appeared  who  attempted  to  show 
on  scientific  grounds  that  religion  should  be  excluded 
from  the  schools.  These  men  asserted  that  the  church 
was  opposed  to  science  and  that  her  method  of  teaching 
religion  by  authority  was  incompatible  with  the  spirit 
of  free  investigation  and  that  the  mind  of  the  child  was 
not  able  to  seize  upon  religious  truth  in  such  a  way  as  to 
make  it  fruitful.  They  lost  sight  of  the  fact  tha  t  many 
of  the  greatest  scientists,  discoverers  and  men  of  letters 
had  been  loyal  Catholics,  educated  in  Catholic  institu- 
tions, and  encouraged  in  their  scientific  work  by  the 
authority  of  the  church. 

In  their  endeavor  to  realize  the  ideal  of  a  non-religious 
school,  text-books  and  methods  were  purged  of  religious 
content  and  the  child  mind  was  formed  in  a  system  of 
knowledge  which  left  no  room  for  God  or  religion.  The 
results,  as  might  have  been  expected,  were  not  long  in 
manifesting  themselves.  Religious  indifferentism  spread 
rapidly;  the  denominational  churches  were  emptied; 
juvenile  crime  increased  by  leaps  and  bounds. 

To  meet  these  difficulties,  energetic  efforts  were  put 
forth  on  all  sides  to  introduce  into  the  schools  effective 
moral  teaching  which,  however,  was  not  allowed  to  be 


THE  SCHOOL  345 

based  on  religious  dogma.  The  teacher  was  required 
to  find  adequate  sanction  for  the  child's  conduct  on  this 
side  of  the  grave.  Self-interest  was  to  take  the  place  of 
obedience  to  supernatural  authority,  but  the  results  were 
not  satisfying. 

During  the  last  few  decades  there  has  been  an  increasing 
demand  by  the  thoughtful  elements  of  our  population  for 
the  introduction  of  religious  teaching  into  the  public 
schools.  In  many  states  legislation  has  already  been 
secured  which  commands  Bible  reading  and  "non-sec- 
tarian" religious  and  moral  instruction.  Prizes  are 
offered  from  time  to  time  for  the  best  essay  setting 
forth  a  plan  by  which  this  end  may  be  achieved.  In  1915, 
1,300  educators  responded  to  the  call  for  a  prize  essay  on 
"The  Essential  Place  of  Religion  in  Education,  with  an 
Outline  of  a  Plan  for  Introducing  Religious  Teaching 
into  the  Public  Schools."  This  contest  was  conducted 
by  the  National  Teachers  Association.  It  is  gratifying 
to  those  who  steadfastly  maintain  the  necessity  of  religion 
in  the  schools  to  note  that  the  public  conscience  is  rejecting 
the  non-religious  school  as  an  ideal. 

The  verdict  of  psychology,  confirmed  by  our  nation 
wide  experiment,  shows  that  the  church  in  her  educational 
methods  conforms  to  the  laws  of  mental  life  when  she 
unites  the  teaching  of  religion  to  the  teaching  of  other 
subjects.  That  her  methods  conform  to  the  laws  of 
the  mind,  may  be  seen  with  equal  clearness  in  her  teaching 
of  religion  itself,  in  her  liturgy,  through  which  she  appeals 
to  the  senses,  in  her  symbolism,  which  depends  upon  the 
association  of  ideas,  in  her  insistence  upon  manifesting 
faith  in  action,  and  in  the  honor  which  she  bids  her  children 
pay  to  the  saintly  men  and  women  whose  lives  deserve 
imitation.  In  fact,  psychology  is  just  beginning  to 


346  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

study  the  laws  which  the  Church  from  her  earliest  days  has 
consistently  observed. 

From  the  Catholic  point  of  view,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  child  who  receives  a  religious  education  is  better 
equipped  for  his  future  contact  with  the  world  than  the 
child  to  whom  no  such  education  is  given.  For  when 
religion  is  properly  taught,  it  fixes  in  the  mind  certain 
beliefs  that  steady  it  in  the  midst  of  doubt  and  certain 
principles  of  conduct  which  guide  and  protect  it  in  the 
midst  of  temptation.  The  adaptation  to  environment 
which  religion  inculcates  is  not  a  weak  yielding  to  every 
influence,  but  rather  the  power  of  discriminating  good 
from  evil  and  of  holding  fast  to  that  which  is  good. 

In  contrasting  the  Catholic  school  with  the  state  school, 
it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  they  are  both  public 
schools  and  they  must  both  minister  to  the  needs  of  the 
home,  of  the  state,  and  of  society  in  general.  In  addition 
to  these  services,  the  Catholic  school  must  include  among 
its  aims  the  teaching  of  religion  and  the  upbuilding  and 
perpetuity  of  the  Church.  These  added  services,  however, 
do  not  in  any  way  derogate  from  the  public  character  of 
our  Catholic  schools. 

Nicholas  Murray  Butler  rightly  says:  "To  understand 
fully  the  position  and  progress  of  education  in  the  United 
States,  a  clear  distinction  must  be  drawn  between  the 
activities  of  the  state,  the  American  people  viewed  as  an 
organized  unit,  and  those  of  the  government,  the  specific 
agencies  and  powers  created  by  the  state,  through  the 
Constitution,  to  accomplish  certain  definite  purposes, 
which,  taken  together,  are  the  ends  or  aims  of  government. 
Whatever  is  done  by  the  state  or  in  the  state's  interest, 
whether  it  be  carried  out  by  a  governmental  agency  or 
not,  is  public;  whatever  is  done  by  the  government  is 


THE  SCHOOL  347 

presumably  public,  and  certainly  tax-supported.  'Much 
of  the  educational  activity  of  the  United  States  is  truly 
public  but  in  no  wise  governmental.  For  example,  the 
United  States  possesses  no  university  maintained  by 
the  national  government,  but  it  possesses  a  half-dozen 
national  universities.  Important  educational  undertak- 
ings of  various  kinds  are  carried  on  in  the  sphere  or  domain 
of  liberty  side  by  side  with  those  which  are  carried  on  in 
the  sphere  or  domain  of  government.  The  true  test, 
in  the  American  system,  of  a  public  institution  or  activity 
is  the  purpose  which  it  serves,  and  not  the  form  of  its 
control  or  the  source  of  its  financial  support.  That  is 
public  which  springs  from  the  public  and  serves  the  public; 
that  is  governmental  which  springs  from  the  government 
and  is  administered  by  the  government.  In  other  words, 
the  sphere  of  public  activity  is  larger  than  that  of  govern- 
mental activity."1 

By  far  the  largest  part  of  the  educational  activity  of  the 
United  States  is  governmental,  nevertheless,  private 
and  denominational  schools  continue  to  render  a  great 
public  service.  The  Catholic  schools  of  the  country 
minister  to  the  needs  of  more  than  one  and  a  half  million 
children.  The  education  that  is  given  in  these  schools 
achieves  all  the  aims  included  in  the  scope  of  the  state 
schools  and  is  more  efficient  in  their  achievement.  These 
schools  are  supported  by  the  gratuitous  offerings  of  the 
Catholic  people,  a  fact  which  makes  the  non-Catholic 
taxpayer  a  heavy  debtor  to  his  Catholic  fellow-citizen. 

1  Button  and  Snedden,  Admin,  of  Pub.  Ed.  in  U.  S..  New  York, 
1910.  p.  v. 


CHAPTER  XX 
STATE  SCHOOL  SYSTEMS 

The  school  that  is  created,  supported  and  governed  by 
the  home  tends  to  remain  isolated.  It  serves  the  interests 
of  a  small  group  and  whatever  services  it  may  render  to 
the  Church,  the  State,  and  society  at  large,  are  more  or 
less  incidental.  Under  such  conditions,  adequate  provi- 
sion for  the  training  of  teachers  is  not  made  nor  is  it 
possible  to  bring  the  schools  of  various  characters  into 
vital  articulation  and  efficient  cooperation.  The  home 
may  create  schools  and  control  their  activities,  but  it  is 
incapable  of  creating  or  developing  school  systems.  The 
accomplishment  of  this  task  calls  for  an  institution  of  a 
wider  and  more  general  scope.  The  Church  and  the 
State  are  the  two  institutions  capable  of  creating  and 
controlling  school  systems  and  they  are  both  vitally 
interested  in  the  accomplishment  of  this  object. 

From  early  Christian  times,  throughout  the  Middle  Ages 
and  down  to  the  days  of  the  Protestant  Reformation,  the 
Church  controlled  education  and  called  into  existence 
elaborate  systems  of  schools,  ranging  from  the  village 
school,  that  ministered  to  the  needs  of  the  poor,  through 
parochial  schools,  cathedral  schools  and  monastic  schools, 
up  to  the  great  universities.  She  provided  for  the  training 
and  proper  licensing  of  teachers;  she  controlled  curricula 
and  established  academic  degrees  having  international 
value. 

The  Reformation  brought  about  many  changes  in  the 
educational  activities  of  Christendom.  Most  of  these 
may  be  traced  to  the  change  which  it  brought  about  in 
non-Catholic  countries  in  the  relations  between  the  Church 

848 


STATE  SCHOOL  SYSTEMS  341) 

and  the  State.  The  immediate  effect  of  the  Reformation 
among  the  German  nations  was  a  sharp  decline  in  the 
education  of  all  classes,  but  particularly  in  the  education 
of  the  poor.  This,  as  was  pointed  out  above,  was  due  in 
large  measure  to  the  diverting  of  educational  endowments 
from  the  schools  to  the  purposes  of  the  state.  The  need 
of  popular  education,  however,  was  clearly  seen  by  the 
Reformers  and  they  utilized  the  means  at  their  disposal 
to  revive  interest  in  the  education  of  the  masses.  Govern- 
ment aid  was  invoked  and  in  their  preaching  they  pointed 
out  the  great  need  which  people  had  of  proficiency  in  the 
elementary  school  arts  so  that  they  might  read  the  Bible 
and  exercise  their  right  of  private  judgment.  This  latter 
motive  long  continued  to  be  operative  in  shaping  the 
elementary  schools  of  the  German  peoples. 

Prussia,  the  largest  of  the  German  states,  was  among  the 
first  to  develop  a  state  school  system  and  it  has  continued 
down  to  the  present  time  to  exert  a  potent  influence  on  the 
school  systems  of  other  countries.  Through  Horace 
Mann,  Henry  Barnard,  and  other  educational  leaders  of 
the  time,  German  educational  ideals  were  rendered  opera- 
tive in  creating  the  state  school  systems  of  this  country, 
and  her  technical  and  vocational  schools  are  at  present 
stimulating  and  guiding  educational  activity  in  a  similar 
direction. 

The  rise  of  the  state  system  of  education  in  Prussia 
was  due,  in  large  measure,  to  the  despotic  power  vested 
in  its  monarchs  and  which  the  Hohenzollems  used  in  the 
interests  of  the  people.  The  state  control  of  education 
began  to  manifest  itself  as  early  as  1532,  at  which  date 
a  "consistory"  of  clerical  and  lay  officers  was  appointed 
to  superintend  both  the  church  and  the  school.  In  1604, 
a  Board  was  appointed  for  the  supervision  of  educational 


350  PHILOSOPHY   OF  EDUCATION 

institutions,  but  for  nearly  a  century  from  that  date  the 
schools  continued  to  be  regarded  as  belonging  to  the 
church.  In  1687,  it  was  declared  that  the  schools 
belonged  to  the  state  as  well  as  to  the  church,  although 
the  teacher  continued  for  many  years  longer  to  be  regarded 
as  a  sort  of  assistant  to  the  pastor,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century  we  still  find  Frederick  William  II 
holding  that  the  main  business  of  the  school  is  to  teach 
religion. 

The  realization  on  the  part  of  the  Government  of  the 
advisability  of  general  education  began  to  find  expression 
about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  in  orders 
issued  to  parents  to  send  their  children  regularly  to 
school.  A  little  later  it  was  decreed  that  schools  should 
be  established  in  the  villages  as  well  as  in  the  cities. 
These  decrees,  however,  were  not  carried  out  at  once. 
The  real  development  of  a  state  system  of  education 
that  was  to  be  nation-wide  in  its  scope  was  a  part  of  the 
strong  centralization  of  government  forces  and  institutions 
which  took  place  under  Frederick  William  I  and  Frederick 
the  Great. 

Frederick  the  Great  did  not  confine  his  attention 
to  the  elementary  school,  but  interested  himself 
in  secondary  and  higher  education.  He  broadened  the 
scope  of  university  work,  reestablished  the  "Academy  of 
Sciences,"  and  founded  the  "Academy  of  Nobles"  to  train 
the  sons  of  the  upper  class  to  become  army  officers  and 
diplomats.  He  centralized  secondary  education  by  plac- 
ing all  the  local  "consistories"  except  that  in  the  Catholic 
duchy  of  Silesia,  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  one  at  the 
capitol.  This  resulted  in  the  development  of  a  lesser 
number  of  strong  gymnasien  with  uniform  courses.  He 
ordered  all  vacancies  in  the  elementary  schools  to  be 


STATE  SCHOOL  SYSTEMS  351 

filled  by  teachers  who  had  received  their  training  in  the 
Real  Schule.  By  a  decree  issued  in  1763,  he  established 
compulsory  education  for  all  the  children  of  the  country 
between  the  agesof  fiveandthirteenandestablished  Sunday 
continuation  schools  for  young  people  beyond  the  school 
age.  Special  provision  was  made  for  children  who  were 
too  poor  to  pay  the  usual  school  fees.  Teachers  were 
required  to  graduate  from  Hecker's  Seminary  and  to 
pass  an  examination  and  receive  a  license  from  the 
inspector.  Pastors  were  required  to  visit  the  schools  and 
inspectors  were  obliged  to  file  an  annual  report  of  the 
schools  under  their  jurisdiction.  Similar  regulations 
were  made  for  the  Catholic  schools  in  Silesia. 

These  decrees  were  bitterly  opposed  by  teachers  and 
farmers  and  were  not  fully  enforced  for  many  years. 
Even  after  the  establishment  of  a  central  board  to  control 
all  the  schools  in  the  Kingdom,  in  1787,  the  control  of 
education  continued  to  reside  in  the  church,  since  the 
majority  of  the  members  of  the  board  were  clergymen,  and 
its  jurisdiction  was  limited  by  Frederick  William  II  to  the 
elementary  schools.  Nevertheless,  in  the  General  Code 
or  fundamental  law  of  Prussia,  published  in  1794,  it  is 
stated  that  "All  schools  and  universities  are  state  institu- 
tions, charged  with  the  instruction  of  youth  in  useful 
information  and  scientific  knowledge.  Such  institutions 
may  be  founded  only  with  the  knowledge  and  consent  of 
the  state."  And  again,  "All  public  schools  and  educa- 
tional institutions  are  under  the  supervision  of  the  state, 
and  are  at  all  times  subject  to  its  examination  and  inspec- 
tion." Teachers  were  to  be  appointed  by  the  state  or 
with  its  consent.  The  teachers  in  the  secondary  schools 
were  regarded  as  state  officials.  While  compulsory 
education  prevailed,  no  child  could  be  compelled  to  stay 


852  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

in  the  school  for  instruction  in  any  other  form  of  religion 
than  that  in  which  he  was  brought  up.  These  regulations, 
like  those  which  preceded  them,  met  with  considerable 
opposition  and  were  not  fully  effective  until  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century. 

"The  decrees  of  1717  and  1763,  the  establishment  of  the 
Oberschulcollegium  in  1787,  the  General  Code,  promulgated 
in  1794,  the  foundation  of  a  Bureau  of  Education  in  1807, 
and  of  a  separate  department  in  1817,  and  the  organization 
of  educational  provinces  in  1825,  are  the  milestones  that 
mark  the  way  to  state  control.  But  while  the  influence 
of  the  church  has  been  constantly  diminishing,  it  is  still 
felt  to  some  extent.  Many  of  the  board  members 
are  ministers  or  priests  and  the  inspectors  come  mostly 
from  the  clergy.  Moreover,  religious  instruction  forms 
part  of  the  course  in  every  school,  although  it  is  given  at 
such  an  hour  that  any  pupil  may  withdraw  if  the  teaching 
is  contrary  to  the  faith  in  which  he  has  been  reared. 
The  secondary  schools  are  largely  interdenominational, 
but  in  elementary  education  there  are  separate  schools 
for  Catholics  and  Protestants,  alike  supported  by  the 
State."1 

How  unsuitable  the  Prussian  system  of  schools  is  to 
conditions  in  the  United  States  may  be  seen  in  the  fact 
that  it  tends  to  preserve  and  perpetuate  social  laminae. 
A  pupil  graduating  from  the  Volksschulen  cannot  enter 
the  secondary  school.  In  fact,  after  the  first  three  years 
in  the  elementary  school,  it  is  practically  impossible  for 
a  pupil  to  transfer  to  the  secondary  system.  The  children 
of  the  aristocratic  class  receive  the  first  three  years  of  then* 
training,  from  six  to  nine,  in  a  special  preparatory  school. 

1  Graves,  Hist,  of  Mod.  Educ.,  New  York,  1913,  pp.  287-288. 
For  a  fuller  account  of  the  rise  of  state  control  in  the  Prussian 
schools,  see  Chap.  IX  of  the  work  quoted  above. 


STATE  SCHOOL  SYSTEMS  353 

They  may  then  enter  the  Gymnasium  and  pursue  their  way 
towards  the  universities  and  professional  schools.  The 
common  schools  are  free,  while  a  substantial  tuition  fee  is 
charged  in  the  Gymnasien.  There  thus  exists  an  impassi- 
ble barrier  for  the  pupil  between  the  common  schools 
and  the  schools  for  the  aristocracy.  Moreover,  in  their 
development,  these  two  sections  of  the  Prussian  school 
system  have  had  an  entirely  different  history.  The 
peoples'  schools  arose  from  the  isolated  individual  schools 
of  the  people,  whereas  the  secondary  schools  received  the 
impulse  for  their  development  and  their  guidance  from 
the  universities. 

The  original  German  type  of  secondary  school,  the 
Gymnasium,  was  purely  humanistic  and  its  character  has 
not  materially  changed,  although  in  the  course  of  time 
its  curriculum  received  an  infiltration  of  mathematics. 
During  the  past  half  century,  the  progress  of  science  was 
responsible  for  calling  into  existence  Realgymnasien  and 
other  types  of  Realschulen  in  which  modern  languages, 
mathematics  and  the  sciences  are  taught.  The  latest  type 
of  school  developed  in  Prussia  was  that  designed  to  meet 
the  industrial  and  commercial  needs  of  the  people.  These 
vocational  schools  have  already  attained  a  high  degree 
of  efficiency  and  to  them  the  industrial  and  commercial 
prosperity  of  Germany  is  in  no  small  measure  due.  The 
German  universities,  by  taking  up  scientific  research  as 
an  essential  part  of  then*  work,  have  not  only  contributed 
to  the  advance  of  general  scholarship  and  the  efficiency 
of  professional  training,  but  indirectly  they  have  pro- 
foundly modified  the  processes  of  manufactures  and 
thus  contributed,  in  large  measure,  to  the  prosperity  of 
the  country. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  in  the  German  system  of 


354  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

secondary  and  higher  education,  the  candidate,  after 
three  years  in  a  Vorschule  and  nine  years  in  a  Gymnasium 
or  Realgymnasium,  is,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  prepared  to  enter 
the  university;  whereas,  in  the  United  States,  the  average 
age  of  the  student  graduating  from  college  is  over  twenty- 
three.  There  are,  however,  longer  school  hours  and  a  longer 
school  year  in  the  German  secondary  schools  and  the 
discipline  is  rigid. 

In  France,  the  church  continued  much  longer  in  the 
control  of  education,  and  the  transition  to  a  centralized 
state  system  was  comparatively  sudden  and  extreme. 
All  the  schools  of  the  Republic  are  centralized  and  their 
control  is  assumed  directly  by  the  national  government 
and  vested  in  a  minister  of  education  who  is  assisted 
by  three  directors,  one  of  whom  deals  with  primary 
schools,  and  the  other  two  with  the  secondary  schools  and 
higher  education  respectively. 

In  England,  the  process  of  centralization  of  educational 
institutions  and  their  control  by  the  state  has  progressed 
slowly.  This  is  due  to  the  widespread  conviction  in 
England  that  the  function  of  education  belongs,  essentially, 
to  the  church  and  the  family.  The  trend  towards  uni- 
versal education,  was,  however,  promoted  by  the  enact- 
ment of  child  labor  laws  and  the  granting  of  subsidies 
to  existing  schools.  To  this  was  added,  late  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  establishment  of  "Board  Schools" 
under  the  control  of  a  board  chosen  by  the  people  of  the 
community.  Compulsory  attendance  laws  were  passed 
in  1876  and  1880.  Extra  government  grants  have  made 
it  possible  for  elementary  schools  to  dispense  with  tuition 
fees.  A  further  step  towards  government  control  of  the 
schools  was  taken  in  1899  by  the  creation  of  a  central 
board  of  education.  An  act  was  passed  in  1902  permit- 


STATE  SCHOOL  SYSTEMS  355 

ting  denominational  schools  to  share  in  the  local  rates 
and  the  administration  of  both  board  and  voluntary 
schools  was  centralized  in  county  councils  and  in  the 
councils  of  large  cities.  Thus  the  dual  system  was 
finally  united  to  a  limited  extent  under  government 
control.  A  further  attempt  was  made  the  same  year 
to  coordinate  primary  and  secondary  education  and  to 
develop  an  articulated  system  of  schools  for  the  kingdom. 

In  Canada,  as  in  the  United  States,  the  separate 
provinces  assumed  control  of  education.  Two  types  of 
educational  systems  have  developed  as  a  result.  The 
state  system  prevails  in  Ontario,  while  the  school  system 
of  Quebec  remains  in  the  control  of  the  church. 

In  the  United  States,  as  elsewhere,  schools  are  much 
older  than  school  systems.  In  colonial  days  and  in  the 
early  years  of  the  republic,  the  elementary  school  was 
called  into  existence  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  local  com- 
munity. At  times,  the  school  owed  its  immediate  origin 
to  private  initiative  and  secured  its  support  through  fees 
paid  by  the  pupils,  but  in  the  great  majority  of  cases 
the  school  was  connected  with  the  church  and  when  not 
taught  by  the  pastor  it  was  under  his  immediate  super- 
vision. For  a  long  time  each  school  remained  isolated. 
The  curriculum  of  the  elementary  school  was  usually 
confined  to  the  teaching  of  religion  and  the  elementary 
school  arts.  The  progress  of  the  pupils  was  not  graded 
or  systematized.  The  teachers  were  without  special 
training  for  their  work  and  were  left  largely  to  their  own 
ingenuity  and  individual  initiative.  The  absence  of 
cooperation  impeded  progress.  The  isolation  and  waste 
incident  to  this  state  of  affairs  are  well  illustrated  by  the 
following  incident  related  by  Horace  Mann : 

"A  gentleman,  filling  one  of  the  highest  civil  offices  in 


356  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

this  Commonwealth, — a  resident  in  one  of  the  oldest 
counties  and  in  one  of  the  largest  towns  of  the  state, — 
a  sincere  friend  of  the  cause  of  education, — recently  put 
into  my  hands  a  printed  report,  drawn  up  by  a  clergyman 
of  high  repute,  which  described,  as  was  supposed,  an 
important  improvement  in  relation  to  our  common 
schools,  and  earnestly  enjoined  its  general  adoption;  when 
it  happened  to  be  within  my  own  knowledge,  that 
the  supposed  new  discovery  had  been  in  successful  opera- 
tion for  sixteen  years,  in  a  town  but  little  more  than 
sixteen  miles  distant."1 

The  need  of  system  in  the  schools-  of  Massachusetts 
at  that  time  was  obvious,  but  there  were  many  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  its  creation.  The  country  was  divided  up 
into  small  districts,  each  of  which  was  autonomous  in 
the  control  of  its  school.  They  were  required  by  law  to 
support  an  elementary  school  and,  where  the  population 
of  the  town  justified  it,  they  were  also  required  to  support 
a  secondary  school  to  prepare  young  men  for  entrance 
into  college.  They  levied  then*  own  taxes,  appointed  a 
teacher  of  their  choice,  no  matter  what  might  be  his 
qualifications,  and  shaped  the  curriculum  and  selected 
text-books  without  any  reference  to  other  schools. 

The  building  of  railroads,  and  the  establishment  of 
telegraphic  communication,  the  government  postal  sys- 
tem, and  the  large  business  enterprises  that  were  springing 
up  throughout  the  country  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  rendered  the  isolated  schools  anomalous.  The 
growing  pressure  from  the  social  and  economic  develop- 
ment of  the  communities  in  time  compelled  them  to  so 
far  relinquish  local  control  of  the  school  as  to  permit  the 
development  of  school  systems  in  the  several  states. 

1  Mann,  Lect.  on  Educ.,  Boston,  1855,  p.  10. 


STATE  SCHOOL  SYSTEMS  337 

In  the  days  when  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
was  framed,  the  sentiment  for  local  self-government  was 
too  strong  to  permit  of  the  establishment  of  a  central 
national  system  of  education. 

The  Fathers  of  the  Republic  were  keenly  conscious  of 
the  necessity  of  universal  education.  They  realized  fully 
that  the  stability  of  the  government  they  were  establishing 
depended  upon  it.  In  his  message  to  Congress  in  1790, 
Washington  voiced  this  sentiment:  "Knowledge  is,  in 
every  country,  the  surest  basis  of  public  happiness.  In 
one  in  which  the  measures  of  government  receive  their 
impression  so  immediately  as  in  ours  from  the  sense  of 
the  community,  it  is  correspondingly  essential." 

The  general  diffusion  of  knowledge  was  the  object 
aimed  at  by  Washington.  He  did  not  interest  himself 
immediately  in  the  character  of  the  school  or  the  school 
system  through  which  this  end  was  to  be  achieved. 
He  suggested  that  Congress  might  determine  whether 
this  general  diffusion  of  knowledge  "will  be  best  promoted 
by  affording  aid  to  seminaries  of  learning  already  estab- 
lished, by  the  institution  of  a  national  university,  or  by 
any  other  expedients." 

It  would  seem  that  Washington  had  in  mind  secondary 
and  higher  institutions  of  learning,  rather  than  the 
common  schools,  and  such  a  view  is  in  keeping  with  the 
educational  traditions  of  his  native  state.  The  people 
of  Virginia  inherited  the  aristocratic  ideals  of  England 
and  showed  little  interest  in  elementary  education.  The 
planters  employed  private  teachers  or  sent  their  children 
abroad,  and  the  children  of  the  poor,  in  consequence, 
remained  illiterate.  When  the  government  of  Virginia 
did  finally  interest  itself  in  the  education  of  its  people, 
its  first  act  was  to  endow  the  College  of  William  and 


358  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

Mary,  and  when  it  finally  took  into  consideration  the 
elementary  school,  it  was  to  establish  schools  for  the  pauper 
children  who  could  not  afford  to  pay  the  fees  exacted  in 
the  existing  elementary  schools  of  the  state. 

Washington  continued  to  think  of  the  services  for  educa- 
tion that  might  be  performed  by  the  national  government. 
He  recommended  the  establishment  of  a  national  univer- 
sity, a  recommendation  which  has  never  been  carried 
out.  Another  of  his  suggestions  proved  more  fruitful 
That  was  the  establishment  of  a  "national  central  agency, 
charged  with  collecting  and  diffusing  information  and 
enabled  by  premiums  and  small  pecuniary  aids  to  encour- 
age and  assist  a  spirit  of  discovery  and  improvement." 
The  two  most  conspicuous  results  of  this  suggestion  are 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  and  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Education. 

Thomas  Jefferson,  likewise,  stressed  information  as  the 
central  thought  in  education.  He  strove  for  the  general 
diffusion  of  education,  but  was  opposed  to  the  centraliza- 
tion of  its  control.  He  believed  that  the  government 
should,  indeed,  support  schools,  but  the  control  of  the 
schools  should  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  local  communi- 
ties. His  influence  thus  tended  to  promote  a  development 
of  the  school  and  its  state  support  while  it  was  scarcely 
less  effective  in  impeding  the  organization  of  school  sys- 
tems. In  a  letter  to  Washington,  written  in  1786,  he 
says:  "It  is  an  axiom  in  my  mind  that  our  liberty  can 
never  be  safe  but  in  the  hands  of  the  people  themselves, 
and  that,  too,  in  the  people  with  a  certain  degree  of  in- 
struction. This  is  the  business  of  the  state  to  effect 
and  on  a  general  plan."  The  idea  of  the  state's  respon- 
sibility for  education  and  the  further  idea  of  the  local 
government  of  the  school  were  frequent  themes  with  him. 


STATE  SCHOOL  SYSTEMS  359 

Towards  the  end  of  his  career,  he  wrote:  "There  are  two 
subjects,  indeed,  which  I  claim  a  right  to  further  as  long 
as  I  breathe,  the  public  education  and  the  subdivision  of 
counties  into  wards.  I  consider  the  continuance  of 
republican  government  as  absolutely  hanging  on  these 
two  hooks." 

James  Madison,  and  many  other  statesmen  of  the 
time,  gave  expression  to  the  view  that  the  welfare  and 
even  the  continuance  of  our  government,  depended  upon 
the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge  or  popular  education. 
They  took  it  for  granted  that  this  end  could  only  be 
achieved  through  state  agency.  In  their  minds,  the 
justification  for  state  interference  in  education  and  state 
support,  lay  in  the  necessity  of  education  for  the  existence 
and  support  of  the  state.  But  few  of  them,  if  any,  seemed 
to  have  a  clear  realization  of  the  need  of  organization 
and  system  on  a  large  scale  in  the  schools  supported  and 
controlled  by  the  state. 

The  views  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Republic  and  its  early 
statesmen  were  not  shared  by  the  people  in  general.  In 
New  England  and  throughout  the  early  colonies,  in  fact, 
the  purpose  of  education  was  held  to  be  twofold:  first  to 
impart  religious  instruction,  and  secondly,  to  equip  the 
individual  for  a  successful  struggle  with  his  physical  and 
social  environments.  The  state's  right  to  interfere  was, 
in  the  popular  consciousness,  based  upon  the  state's  duty 
to  promote  individual  welfare.  The  social  aspect  of 
education  did  not  receive  general  recognition  during  the 
early  decades  of  the  Republic. 

The  creation  of  a  state  school  system  for  Massachusetts 
was  opposed  by  four  great  forces:  (1)  the  disintegrating 
force  of  Protestantism,  with  its  emphasis  on  the  right  to 
private  judgment  in  the  interpretation  of  the  Sacred 


360  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

Scriptures;  (2)  the  deep-seated  idea  of  local  self-govern- 
ment; (3)  the  individualistic  aim  of  education;  and  (4) 
the  unwillingness  of  the  people  to  tax  themselves  for  the 
purposes  of  general  education.  The  man  who  had  no 
children  of  school  age  could  not  find  it  set  down  within 
his  duty  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  his  neighbor's 
children,  nor  was  he  able  to  see  the  justice  of  this  procedure 
until  the  social  aim  of  education  received  general 
recognition. 

The  development  of  the  state  school  system  in  Massa- 
chusetts may  be  taken  as  typical  of  the  history  of  school 
systems  in  the  older  states. 

The  beginning  of  the  school  system  in  Massachusetts 
may  be  traced  to  the  pressure  which  was  gradually  brought 
to  bear  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  for 
the  professional  training  of  teachers.  In  1816,  Olmstead 
urged  the  establishment  of  free  training  schools  for  school- 
masters. In  1823,  J.  L.  Engsley  published  an  urgent 
appeal  for  the  same  purpose  in  the  North  American 
Review.  During  this  and-the  following  years  such  men 
as  Russell  and  Gallaudet  assisted  in  the  propaganda. 
At  this  time,  also,  private  normal  schools  began  to  appear. 
Educational  societies  and  various  educational  publications 
continued  to  agitate  for  better  methods  and  better  training 
of  teachers.  James  G.  Carter  took  up  the  matter  in  the 
Legislature  of  Massachusetts  and  continued  to  agitate 
for  better  schools  through  the  public  prints,  emphasizing 
particularly  the  need  of  a  normal  school  for  the  training 
of  public  school  teachers.  His  work  on  the  "Outlines  of 
an  Institution  for  the  Education  of  Teachers"  was  widely 
circulated  and  earned  for  him  the  title  of  "Father  of  the 
Normal  Schools.'*  He  succeeded  hi  getting  a  bill  passed 
by  the  State  Legislature,  in  1826,  to  reform  the  school 


STATE  SCHOOL  SYSTEMS  861 

system  of  Massachusetts.  By  this  law  each  town  as  a 
whole  was  required  to  choose  a  regular  committee  to 
supervise  the  schools,  to  choose  the  text-books,  to  examine, 
certify  and  employ  teachers.  This  act  was  neutralized, 
in  large  measure,  by  the  opposition  of  the  party  favoring 
extreme  local  control.  In  1834,  Carter  succeeded  in 
getting  a  state  school  fund  established,  the  income  from 
which  was  distributed  only  to  those  towns  which  raised 
$1  by  local  taxation  for  every  child  of  school  age.  In 
1837,  he  secured  the  passage  of  an  act  establishing  a 
state  board  of  education  of  which  Horace  Mann  was  the 
first  secretary,  an  office  which  he  retained  for  twelve 
years. 

Horace  Mann,  who  has  often  been  called  the  "Father 
of  the  Public  Schools,"  set  to  work  at  once  to  mould  the 
existing  schools  into  an  effective  school  system.  Through 
personal  inspection,  through  addresses  to  assemblies  of 
teachers,  through  his  annual  reports,  and  the  Massachusetts 
Common  School  Journal,  which  he  founded  and  supported, 
he  accomplished  many  of  the  objects  to  which  he  addressed 
himself,  and  the  influence  of  his  work  was  felt  throughout 
the  country.  He  succeeded  in  establishing  three  state 
normal  schools  for  the  training  of  public  school  teachers, 
school  libraries  in  connection  with  many  of  the  schools, 
and  awakened  a  public  sentiment  in  favor  of  improved 
text-books  and  better  methods.  He  began  the  work  of 
consolidating  the  schools,  he  changed  the  curriculum, 
and  eliminated  from  the  schools  the  teaching  of  religion 
and  the  control  of  the  church,  and  thus  there  emerged 
the  fundamental  lines  of  a  state  school  system  which  is 
typical  of  the  system  adopted  by  most  of  the  states. 

As  was  to  be  expected,  Mann  encountered  serious 
opposition  from  many  sources  which  prevented  him  from 


362  PHILOSOPHY  OF   EDUCATION 

completely  realizing  his  ideals  which  were  borrowed,  in 
large  measure,  from  European  school  systems.  The 
centralizing  tendency  which  was  begun  under  his  secre- 
taryship was  continued  by  his  successors  and  particularly 
through  the  writings  of  Henry  Barnard  who  held,  at 
different  times,  the  secretaryship  of  the  State  Boards  of 
Education  in  Connecticut  and  in  Rhode  Island  until 
he  was  appointed  first  United  States  Commissioner  of 
Education  in  1867.  Barnard's  educational  writings  were 
extensive  and  influential.  Through  his  American  Journal 
of  Education,  in  particular,  he  contributed  greatly  towards 
rendering  American  educators  familiar  with  thp  educa- 
tional methods  and  systems  of  Europe. 

From  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  onward, 
the  centralizing  tendency  in  the  common  schools  of  New 
England  grew  steadily,  but  the  district  system  did  not 
wholly  disappear  until  our  own  day.  Secondary  schools 
were  at  first  required  in  towns  of  suitable  size  by  the  law 
of  Massachusetts.  These  were  gradually  brought  into 
the  state  school  system  and  their  number  rapidly  multi- 
plied in  tjhe  latter  part  of  the  century.  In  the  west,  high 
schools  grew  up  as  a  part  of  the  state  system  and  provision 
was  made  in  all  of  the  newer  states  for  the  support  of  a 
state  university  which  served  to  give  a  higher  academic 
and  professional  training  free  to  the  citizens  of  the  state, 
to  prepare  teachers  for  the  secondary  schools,  and  to 
exert  an  uplifting  and  unifying  influence  on  the  state 
school  system.  Normal  schools  sprang  up  everywhere 
for  the  training  of  elementary  teachers  in  the  country 
districts.  City  training  schools  performed  a  similar  func- 
tion for  the  larger  cities. 

During  the  time  that  the  state  school  system  was 
completing  its  development  under  centralized  control, 


STATE  SCHOOL  SYSTEMS  363 

establishing  schools  of  various  character  and  articulating 
them  with  each  other,  the  aim  of  education  was  gradually 
undergoing  a  profound  transformation.  The  original 
individualistic  view  of  education  was  long-lived.  Even 
those  educators  who  occupied  themselves  with  the  tech- 
nique of  teaching  and  methods  of  supervision  continued 
to  hold  that  the  function  of  democratic  government  was 
to  give  to  every  individual  freedom  of  opportunity  and 
the  function  of  state  education  was  to  equip  the  individu&l 
in  the  briefest  time  for  the  competitive  struggle  of  indi- 
vidual with  individual.  As  a  consequence,  education 
continued  to  be  intensely  utilitarian. 

From  1840  on,  however,  there  may  be  discerned  a 
growing  sociological  tendency  in  state  education,  and 
before  the  end  of  the  century  was  reached,  the  dominant 
view  came  to  be  that  the  central  aim  of  state  education 
should  be  to  prepare  the  children  for  worthy  citizenship. 
It  was  gradually  realized  that  both  individual  and  social 
welfare  depend  upon  the  proper  adjustment  of  the 
individual  to  institutional  life  and  this  came  to  be  more 
and  more  the  conscious  aim  of  state  education.  As  a 
result  of  this  change,  the  curriculum  underwent  a  gradual 
transformation  in  which  emphasis  was  shifted  from  formal 
knowledge  and  technical  skill  to  history,  economics  and 
literature.  The  building  of  character,  the  forming  of 
social  habits,  and  the  instilling  of  patriotic  motives, 
gradually  came  into  the  foreground  and  knowledge  and 
intellectual  culture  were  valued  not  so  much  for  their 
own  sake  as  for  their  effect  on  character  and  conduct. 

Thus,  in  the  course  of  time,  the  development  of  social 
science  effected  a  change  in  educational  aims.  The  main  fea- 
tures of  this  change  may  be  summed  up  under  four  heads : 

1.  The  feelings  constitute  the  basal  factor  in  life.    It 


364  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

is  through  these  that  proper  response  to  stimuli  is  secured 
and  life  preserved.  The  development  of  intellect  aids  in 
this  process,  but  the  chief  function  of  the  intellect  is 
to  enlighten  the  will  and  permit  more  suitable  response. 
In  a  word,  feelings  furnish  the  motive  power  of  life  while 
intellect  acts  as  the  guide.  That  the  intellect  may  per- 
form this  function  suitably,  it  must  be  provided  with  the 
best  available  knowledge. 

2.  Education  should  not  only  supply  to  the  individual 
the  most  valuable  knowledge,  but  it  should  furnish  him 
with  those  moral  qualities  which  will  fit  him  to  take  his 
part  in   controlling  social  action,  for   in  a  democracy 
government  must  be  conducted,  not  by  an  hereditary 
class,  but  by  the  intelligence  and  good  will  of  all  the 
members  of  the  social  body.     The  teacher,  therefore,  in 
properly  training  the  citizen,  renders  it  unnecessary  for 
society  to  support  a  ruling  class  and  to  subordinate  their 
freedom  of  action  to  it.     Education,  in  this  concept,  is 
primarily  for  the  good  of  the  state  and  it  may  minister 
only  in  an  indirect  way  to  the  needs  of  the  home  and  the 
church.     It  is,  in  fact,  to  be  made  a  fit  instrument  to 
substitute  for  the  controlling  power  of  the  church  and  of 
an  hereditary  aristocracy. 

3.  The  social  significance  of  education,  emphasized  by 
Plato  and  by  such  modern  educatiqnal  writers  as  Otto 
Willmann,  is  to  be  found  in  its  function  of  assimilating 
each  new  generation  to  the  social  life  established  by  its 
predecessor.     It  is  to  preserve  the  continuity  of  the  past 
and  present,  hence  it  is  the  chief  business  of  education  to 
transmit  to  each  generation  the  five-fold  spiritual  inher- 
itance of  the  race.     John  Fiske  and  Murray  Butler  have 
contributed  largely  to  the  popularizing  of  this  concept  of 
education. 


STATE  SCHOOL  SYSTEMS  365 

4.  Finally,  President  Hall,  and  the  school  of  evolution- 
ists in  general,  regard  education  as  the  means  by  which 
society  is  to  achieve  its  progress.  Society  consciously 
resists  change  and  seeks  to  perpetuate  itself  through 
education,  but  unconsciously,  by  a  process  of  natural 
selection,  progress  is  being  achieved.  These  educators 
conceive  it  to  be  the  specific  function  of  education  to  lift 
this  progressive  change  into  consciousness  and  make  it 
the  deliberate  aim  of  society. 

This  view  is  closely  allied  to  the  doctrine  of  eu- 
genics, but  its  scope  is  much  wider.  The  eugenists 
seek  to  improve  the  race  by  selecting  the  parents 
of  the  future  generation.  The  school  of  education  which 
we  are  here  considering  aims  at  selecting  out  of  the 
masses  of  the  children  those  who  are  best  suited  to 
control  and  direct  social  progress  and  at  equipping  them 
for  effective  work  in  this  direction.  Moreover,  the 
evolutionary  school  lays  particular  emphasis  on  the 
necessity  of  abandoning  the  idea  of  building  up  in  the  pupil 
definite  adjustments  to  a  fixed  environment  and  insists 
that  it  is  the  business  of  education  to  develop  in  each  pupil 
the  power  of  rapid  and  easy  self -adjustment  to  a  changed 
and  changing  environment.  In  fact,  this  plastic  power 
is  regarded  as  the  chief  element  in  the  standard  of  social 
selection.  That  there  is  value  in  this  view  is  not  to  be 
denied,  but  it  should  be  remembered  at  the  same  time  that 
it  contains  an  element  of  extreme  danger  to  the  stability 
of  social  institutions.  It  is  one  thing  to  improve  our 
institutions  and  quite  another  to  release  forces  in  society 
which,  by  their  very  nature,  would  tend  to  destroy  these 
institutions,  root  and  branch. 

In  fact,  the  actual  working  out  of  our  state  educational 
systems  under  the  new  ideals  and  aims  has  already 


366  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

profoundly  influenced  such  basic  social  institutions  as  the 
family  and  the  church.  The  state  school  has  tended  to 
empty  the  Protestant  churches  and  to  weaken  the  influence 
of  the  Protestant  denominations  on  society  and  on 
government.  Nor  has  its  influence  on  the  home  been 
less  corroding. 

When  the  state  took  over  the  control  of  the  school  and 
compelled  all  the  children  to  attend,  it  was,  of  course, 
obliged  to  control  the  physical  conditions  so  that  the 
children's  health  might  not  be  menaced.  The  state's 
activity  in  this  direction  did  not  stop  with  the  control  of 
school  architecture  and  with  the  securing  of  proper  sanita- 
tion and  hygienic  conditions.  Medical  inspection  was 
found  to  be  necessary  and  vaccination  was  resorted  to  at 
times  in  order  to  prevent  the  spread  of  dangerous  diseases. 
From  this  to  the  examination  of  the  children's  eyes  by  a 
school  physician,  and  the  supplying  of  suitable  glasses, 
was  an  easy  step.  Since  adenoids  were  found  to  affect 
the  children's  progress  in  their  studies,  it  was  natural 
enough  that  they  should  be  removed  and  the  school  sup- 
plied the  surgeons  for  the  work.  Their  progress  demanded 
improved  text  books  and  the  school  supplied  them. 
The  children,  at  times,  were  found  to  need  physical  care 
which  wras  not  being  supplied  at  home,  hence  the  employ- 
ment by  the  school  of  district  nurses.  Many  of  the 
children  in  some  of  our  large  cities  were  not  sufficiently 
nourished  nor  taught  to  eat  properly  in  the  home  and 
this  function  also  was  taken  over  by  the  school.  The 
parents,  in  many  cases,  were  foreigners,  unacquainted 
with  our  language  or  institutions,  and  hence  the  schools 
had  to  supply  not  only  instruction,  but  the  proper  models 
of  conduct.  The  homes  were  often  gloomy  and  the 
surroundings  uninviting.  This  was  remedied  by  the 


STATE  SCHOOL  SYSTEMS  367 

school  through  picnic  parties  and  other  pleasure  expedi- 
tions to  the  country,  for  in  this  theory  the  children  belong 
to  the  state  and  should  be  cared  for  by  it. 

Now  the  natural  home  was  called  into  existence  chiefly 
through  the  six-fold  dependence  of  the  infant  upon  its 
parents.  The  child  depends  upon  its  parents  for  his 
existence,  for  love,  for  nourishment,  for  protection  against 
danger,  for  remedy  in  disaster,  and  for  the  models  of  his 
imitative  activity.  In  some  of  our  cities,  at  the  present 
day,  the  school  has  taken  upon  itself  to  meet  the  latter 
five  of  these  needs  of  childhood,  thus  rendering  the  home 
unnecessary  for  everything  except  for  the  procreation  of 
children.  The  one  step  necessary  to  complete  this 
process  is  the  granting  of  a  state  subsidy  to  motherhood 
and  the  doing  away  with  marriage  altogether,  a  step 
which  was  actually  advocated  a  few  years  ago  by  the 
principal  of  a  large  private  school  in  one  of  our  big  cities. 

Thus,  in  three-quarters  of  a  century,  the  schools  of  this 
country  have  undergone  a  radical  transformation.  From 
the  isolated  district  school  supported  by  a  few  families 
and  controlled  by  the  local  pastor,  we  have  advanced, 
if  it  be  advanced,  to  a  school  system  that  is  strongly 
centralized,  supported  and  controlled  exclusively  by  the 
state,  from  which  religion  and  the  influence  of  the  church 
are  completely  banished,  and  which  is  not  only  inde- 
pendent of  the  home  and  the  local  community,  but  which 
takes  upon  itself  to  perform  five  out  of  the  six  essential 
functions  of  the  home.  This  school  system,  instead  of 
strengthening  and  perfecting  the  home  and  the  church, 
suppresses  and  replaces  both  of  them.  It  must  not  be 
supposed,  however,  that  the  loss  of  power  by  the  home 
and  the  church  means  a  proportionate  gain  by  the  state. 
The  converse  of  this  is  the  fact. 


368  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

The  state  draws  its  main  support  from  the  home  and 
the  church,  and  with  the  decay  of  these  institutions,  the 
Christian  state  also  declines.  Christian  society  needs  the 
home,  the  church  and  the  state,  and  it  cannot  long  survive 
the  loss  of  any  one  of  these  institutions.  The  relationship 
between  the  functions  of  these  three  institutions  finds  apt 
illustration  in  the  interdependence  of  the  lower  forms  of 
life.  The  flowering  plant  depends  upon  the  insect  for  its 
perpetuation,  and  if  the  insect  were  to  disappear,  the 
flowering  plant  would  disappear  with  it.  Where,  however, 
insects  grow  too  numerous,  they  destroy  all  vegetation 
and  die  as  a  result  of  absence  of  food.  The  birds,  by 
controlling  the  spread  of  insect  life,  are  thus  the  natural 
means  of  preserving  both  the  plant  and  the  insect,  while 
they  draw  their  own  support  from  both  of  them. 

During  the  last  two  decades  there  has  appeared  a  grow- 
ing tendency  in  certain  educational  and  industrial  circles 
to  return  to  the  individualistic  aim  of  education.  At 
present,  as  in  the  days  of  Horace  Mann,  the  guiding 
influence  is  German.  The  achievements  of  the  German 
Empire  along  industrial  and  technical  lines  have  called 
the  attention  of  our  manufacturers  and  merchants,  of 
our  educators  and  statesmen,  to  the  need  of  adequate 
industrial  and  technical  training  for  our  people  if  they 
are  to  compete  successfully  in  the  markets  of  the  world. 

Neither  in  the  German  Empire  nor  in  the  United  States 
has  the  vocational  type  of  school  been  as  yet  definitely 
crystallized.  At  present,  the  achievements  of  Dr.  Kers- 
chensteiner,  director  of  the  Public  Schools  of  Munich, 
are  being  closely  studied  in  this  country  and  the  system 
of  vocational  schools  which  he  was  instrumental  in 
carrying  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection  seems  destined 
to  exert  a  marked  influence  on  the  growing  movement 


STATE  SCHOOL  SYSTEMS  369 

here.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  both  in  Germany  and  in 
this  country  the  movement  for  vocational  education 
was  inaugurated  by  private  enterprise  and  had  its  incep- 
tion in  the  individualistic  aim  of  education  whic.h  was 
being  crowded  out  of  the  state  school  system.  The 
organization  of  the  movement,  the  centralizing  of  control, 
and  the  diverting  of  its  aim  from  the  individual  welfare 
to  the  welfare  of  the  country,  bear  many  striking  resem- 
blances to  the  school  movement  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
century.  The  brief  account  given  of  the  growth  of  the 
movement  in  Munich  by  Dr.  Kerschensteiner  is  most 
suggestive:  "If  we  consider  the  history  of  the  most 
successful  undertakings  of  this  nature  we  notice  an 
abundance  of  that  spontaneous  public-spirited  activity 
which  disregards  reward;  an  administrative  energy  in 
individual  men  and  women  worthy  of  all  admiration;  a 
readiness  of  sacrifice,  and  a  highly  developed  altruism 
among  the  intellectual  elite  of  society.  But,  in  spite  of 
all  this,  most  of  the  organizations  mentioned  do  not 
produce  the  results  which  might  be  expected  of  them. 
In  particular,  most  of  them  suffer  from  one  great  defect — 
the  lack  of  an  appropriate  organization  as  regards  civic 
education.  With  few  exceptions,  these  public-spirited 
endeavors  can  be  immediately  ascribed  to  two  motives, — 
intellectual  or  artistic  culture  for  its  own  sake,  and 
pecuniary  advantage.  This  is  easily  understood  of  an 
age  in  which  scientific  knowledge  showed  a  hitherto  un- 
heard of  growth,  and  the  economic  development  of  Ger- 
many received  an  impulse  which  in  a  short  time  converted 
a  poor  country  into  a  prosperous  one.  In  fact,  we  find 
all  the  important  educational  facilities  organized  entirely 
according  to  these  two  points  of  view;  that  is  to  say,  all 
trade  and  continuation  classes,  whether  they  are  main- 


370  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

tained  by  the  nation,  the  local  authorities,  or  by  private 
individuals.  To  spread  knowledge  and  to  insure  dexterity 
were  the  principal  aims  of  these  societies.  But  knowledge 
and  skill  can  be  employed  selfishly  as  well  as  altruistically, 
and  they  certainly  will  be  employed  selfishly  if  in  these 
very  schools  we  neglect  to  direct  the  attention  of  the 
masses  to  general  considerations  and  to  curb  the  selfishness 
of  the  individual  while  at  the  same  time  strengthening  his 
feeling  of  solidarity."1 

In  the  United  States,  vocational  schools  were,  in  many 
instances,  founded  by  private  enterprise,  and  attempts 
have  been  made  to  have  a  system  of  vocational  schools 
developed  by  the  government  as  separate  and  independ- 
ent of  the  general  state  system.  But  the  trend  seems 
decidedly  towards  the  incorporation  of  vocational  schools 
in  the  general  state  system  and  means  will  have  to  be 
sought  to  counteract  the  selfish  tendency  that  is  insepar- 
able from  schools  whose  explicit  aim  is  increase  of  indi- 
vidual efficiency  and  increased  power  of  the  individual  to 
enlarge  his  earning  capacity. 

1  Kerschensteiner,  Educ.  for  Citizenship,  Eng.  Trans.,  Chicago. 
1911,  pp.  8-9. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
THE  CATHOLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM 

The  Catholic  school,  as  we  have  pointed  out  elsewhere, 
has  existed  from  early  Christian  days  and  it  has 
enjoyed  unbroken  continuity.  Wherever  the  Church 
went  the  school  went  with  it  or  followed  immediately 
in  its  wake.  Nor  is  this  true  of  the  school  alone.  Un- 
broken continuity  applies,  in  a  large  sense,  to  Catholic 
school  system  or  systems,  for  the  Catholic  school  has 
partaken  of  the  unity  of  the  Church  and  shared  in  its 
principles  of  organization.  The  purpose  of  the  school, 
its  curriculum,  its  organization,  its  ideals,  and  the  training 
of  its  teachers,  are  all  matters  of  concern  to  the  Church 
as  a  whole,  rather  than  of  the  local  pastor  and  his  congre- 
gation. It  is  true  that  the  support  is  usually  drawn  from 
the  local  community,  but  the  control  is  rarely  left 
exclusively  to  isolated  groups.  From  a  very  early  date, 
the  qualification  of  the  teacher  was  determined  by  general 
Church  authority  and  the  doctrine  taught  was  under 
general  supervision  and  control. 

One  of  the  most  striking  characteristics  of  the  Catholic 
Church  is  the  plasticity  which  permits  her  to  adapt  herself 
to  the  conditions  which  she  finds  in  every  nation  and  under 
every  form  of  government.  This  plasticity  also  is  shared 
by  her  schools,  hence  we  find  that,  while  the  Catholic 
school  system  everywhere  maintains  certain  definite 
aims,  embodies  certain  definite  principles,  both  in  its 
teaching  and  in  its  organization,  nevertheless,  in  each 
country  the  schools  have  adjusted  themselves  to  the  vital 
needs  of  the  people  whom  they  serve. 

To  the  casual  observer,  the  Catholic  schools  of  the 

871 


372  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

United  States  seem  to  differ  as  markedly  from  the  Catholic 
schools  of  Germany,  or  of  England,  as  the  state  systems 
of  this  country  differ  from  European  systems.  This  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  unity  and  continuity  is  to  be 
sought  not  so  much  in  the  externals  or  accidentals  of  the 
Catholic  school  systems  as  in  their  great  underlying 
principles.  In  many  respects,  therefore,  the  Catholic 
school  system  in  its  development  and  in  the  form  which 
it  has  assumed  in  different  countries  offers  a  striking 
contrast  to  the  school  systems  developed  by  non-Catholic 
bodies  and  by  the  state. 

The  Church,  during  the  Middle  Ages,  controlled  educa- 
tion in  all  Christian  countries.  It  was  through  her 
authority  that  schools  were  built,  that  teachers  were 
licensed,  that  the  elements  of  the  curriculum  were  deter- 
mined, and,  while  she  always  utilized  the  school  for  the 
religious  education  of  her  children,  and  for  the  special 
preparation  of  her  priests,  she  did  not  confine  the  scope 
of  the  school  to  these  aims.  The  generous  impulses  of 
her  conscious  life  nourished  into  vigor  all  the  capacities 
and  faculties  of  man. 

Through  her  liturgy  and  her  organic  teaching,  she  quick- 
ened the  aesthetic  Sense  and  furnished  inspiration  and 
guidance  to  the  fine  arts.  Music,  painting,  sculpture, 
architecture,  inlaid  work,  embroidery,  illuminating  of 
manuscripts,  ornamental  metal  work,  poetry  and  litera- 
ture were  all  encouraged  and  supported  by  her,  while  in 
her  monastic  schools  she  taught  the  children  of  the  people 
agriculture  and  the  industrial  arts. 

The  Church's  schools  were  everywhere,  and  if  the 
teaching  of  Latin  was  a  recognized  aim,  and  if  Latin  was, 
for  a  long  time,  the  language  used  for  imparting  the 
instruction  given,  this  procedure  was  fully  justified  by  the 


THE  CATHOLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM  373 

circumstances  of  the  times.  The  vernacular  tongues  of 
the  nomadic  tribes  and  nascent  nationalities  of  Europe 
were  not  developed  and  were,  for  the  most  part,  wholly 
devoid  of  literary  content.  Moreover,  the  use  of  a  com- 
mon language  by  the  upper  classes  was  no  small  factor 
in  welding  into  unity  the  warring  elements  that  swept 
down  over  Europe  in  the  great  invasions. 

When  the  proper  time  came,  the  Catholic  schools  of 
Europe  were  not  behind  others  in  using  and  developing 
the  vernacular.  The  printing  press  was  necessary  before 
any  large  development  in  this  direction  could  take  place, 
and  it  was  used  by  Catholics  as  well  as  Protestants  from 
the  beginning  for  the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge  and 
for  the  cultivation  of  the  vernacular.  And  while  Catholic 
peoples  did  not  feel  the  same  necessity  for  the  popular 
reading  of  the  Bible  as  was  felt  by  the  Reformers  who 
pinned  their  salvation  to  this  practice,  the  Church  did 
not  fail  to  appreciate  the  great  value  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures  or  to  take  steps  for  their  diffusion  among  the 
people  even  before  the  printing  press  lent  its  aid  to  the 
work. 

As  an  illustration  of  this,  attention  may  be  called  to 
the  work  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life.  This 
society  grew  out  of  the  missionary  zeal  of  De  Groote  who, 
after  resigning  his  prebends,  in  1373,  and  living  in  solitude 
for  seven  years,  devoted  the  remaining  years  of  his  life 
to  the  spiritual  regeneration  of  the  people  of  his  native 
land.  The  group  of  disciples  which  gradually  grew  up 
around  him  under  the  headship  of  his  successor,  founded 
the  monastery  of  Wendesheim  in  1386  which,  from  this 
time  forward,  remained  the  center  of  the  new  organization. 
The  member?  of  this  society  took  no  vows;  they  neither 
asked  nor  received  alms;  their  first  aim  was  to  cultivate 


374  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  interior  life  and  they  worked  for  their  daily  bread. 
The  brothers  and  sisters  of  this  community  occupied 
themselves  exclusively  with  literature  and  education. 
Those  among  the  brethren  who  were  ordained,  also  took 
up  the  work  of  preaching.  Parker,  speaking  of  the 
attitude  of  the  Church  towards  the  dissemination  of  the 
vernacular  Bible,  says: 

"In  fact,  before  the  Reformation  there  are  many  ex- 
amples of  Catholic  authorities'  putting  the  whole  or  parts 
of  the  Bible  into  the  vernacular,  to  be  used  as  a  source  of 
moral  lessons  by  the  common  people.  One  of  the  most 
notable  examples  of  this  on  a  large  scale  is  found  in  the 
activities  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life.  .  .  . 
They  were  orthodox  Catholics  organized  to  copy  and 
disseminate  manuscripts  for  moral  and  religious  instruc- 
tion. These  manuscripts  were  largely  in  the  Dutch 
language  and  were  often  distributed  gratis."1 

The  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life  may  also  be  taken 
as  a  good  illustration  of  the  development  of  Catholic 
school  systems.  They  found  the  Netherlands  sunk  in 
ignorance  and  illiteracy.  Gilliat-Smith,  writing  in  the 
Catholic  Encyclopedia  under  the  caption  "Brethren  of 
the  Common  Life,"  gives  a  brief  resume  of  the  conditions 
and  accomplishments  of  the  community:  "When  Groote 
began,  learning  in  the  Netherlands  was  as  rare  as  virtue; 
the  University  of  Louvain  had  not  yet  been  founded,  and 
the  fame  of  the  schools  of  Liege  was  only  a  memory. 
Save  for  a  clerk  here  and  there  who  had  studied  at  Paris 
or  Cologne,  there  were  no  scholars  in  the  land;  even 
amongst  the  higher  clergy  there  were  many  who  were 
ignorant  of  Latin,  and  the  burgher  was  quite  content  if 
when  his  children  left  school  they  were  able  to  read  and 

1  Parker.  Mod.  Elem.  Educ.,  Boston,  1912,  p.  43. 


THE  CATHOLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM  375 

write.  Groote  determined  to  change  all  this  and  his 
disciples  accomplished  much.  Through  their  unflagging 
toil  in  the  scriptorium  and  afterwards  at  the  press  they 
w,er,e  able  to  multiply  their  spiritual  writings  and  to 
scatter  them  broadcast  throughout  the  land,  instinct  with 
the  spirit  of  the  'Imitation.'  Amongst  them  are  to  be 
found  the  choicest  flowers  of  fifteenth  century  Flemish 
prose.  The  Brethren  spared  no  pains  to  obtain  good 
masters,  if  necessary  from  foreign  parts,  for  their  schools, 
which  became  centers  of  spiritual  and  intellectual  life. 
.  .  .  Before  the  fifteenth  century  closed,  the  Brethren 
of  the  Common  Life  had  studded  all  Germany  and  the 
Netherlands  with  schools  in  which  the  teaching  was  given 
for  the  love  of  God  alone.  Gradually  the  course,  at  first 
elementary,  embraced  the  humanities,  philosophy,  and 
theology.  .  .  .  More  than  half  of  the  crowded  schools — 
in  1500  Deventer  counted  over  2,000  students — were 
swept  away  in  the  religious  troubles  of  the  sixteenth 
century." 

The  work  begun  by  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life 
was  taken  up  in  the  Reformation  period  and  later  by  other 
religious  communities  who  were  animated  by  similar 
disinterested  motives  and  who  understood  the  values  of 
correct  training  in  the  teacher  and  of  system  in  the  work 
of  education.  The  work  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  at  this 
period  is  too  well  known  to  need  commenjt.  Samuel 
Chester  Parker,  Dean  of  the  College  of  Education  in  the 
University  of  Chicago,  will  scarcely  be  accused  of  bias  in 
favor  of  Catholic  education.  In  commenting  on  the 
Catholic  reform,  inaugurated  by  the  Council  of  Trent,  he 
says:  "In  the  field  of  secondary  education  this  reform 
was  carried  out  by  the  Jesuits,  whose  schools  were  the 
most  efficient  in  Europe.  This  efficiency  was  due  to  the 


376  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

systematic  organization  of  the  schools,  the  thorough 
preparation  of  the  teachers,  and  their  devotion  to  the 
profession  of  teaching."1  The  work  of  the  Society  was 
chiefly  secondary  and  higher  education,  but  both  in 
Europe  and  in  America  it  contributed  no  small  share  to  the 
spread  of  popular  education. 

In  contrast  to  the  work  of  the  Jesuits,  the  Brothers  of 
the  Christian  Schools  devoted  themselves,  at  first,  exclu- 
sively to  the  work  of  elementary  education  and  they  have 
not  lost  this  dominant  aim  down  to  the  present  day. 
The  scope  and  spirit  of  this  community  is  also  set  forth  in 
Parker's  "History  of  Elementary  Education"  (Chapter  V) 
from  which  we  take  the  following  excerpts  which  may  be 
regarded  as  representative  of  the  verdict  of  non-Catholic 
scholarship  concerning  the  work  of  De  La  Salle  and  his 
spiritual  children : 

"The  organization  of  the  Brethren  was  due  to  the  efforts 
and  self-sacrifice  of  Jean  Baptiste  de  La  Salle  (1651-1719), 
of  noble  French  family,  wealthy  in  his  own  name,  and 
enjoying  a  good  income  as  a  canon  of  the  cathedral  at 
Reims.  La  Salle  became  interested  in  the  education  of 
the  poor  as  a  result  of  assisting  in  the  organization  of  a 
number  of  charity  schools  for  boys.  He  became  adviser 
to  the  masters  of  these  schools,  established  them  in  a 
house  near  his  own,  organized  their  lives,  and  directed 
their  teaching.  Gradually  he  acquired  such  an  interest 
in  the  work  that  he  decided  to  devote  his  life  to  the 
development  of  an  organization  the  purpose  of  which 
was  stated  above.  He  first  organized  a  community  of 
such  teachers  in  his  native  town  of  Reims,  next  in  Paris, 
and  finally  in  all  the  larger  cities  of  France.  At  the  time 
of  his  death  in  1719  the  organization  numbered  27 

1  Parker,  op.  cit.,  p.  96. 


THE  CATHOLIC   SCHOOL  SYSTEM  377 

houses,  274  brothers,  with  9,000  pupils.  By  the  time 
of  the  French  Revolution  (1789)  there  were  121  houses, 
800  brothers,  and  36,000  children  being  taught  in  the 
schools. 

"The  organization  depended  entirely  on  charity  for  its 
support,  the  members  pledging  themselves  to  remain  poor 
and  to  accept  absolutely  no  fees  or  other  remuneration 
from  scholars.  ...  In  order  to  keep  the  society 
devoted  only  to  elementary  education,  and  to  keep  it 
from  turning  its  attention  to  the  more  interesting  fields 
of  secondary  and  higher  education,  the  study  and  the 
teaching  of  Latin  were  prohibited  at  first.  ...  In 
order  to  assure  further  that  the  members  would  remain 
devoted  to  then*  profession  of  free  elementary  instruction, 
the  young  men  who  were  received  as  candidates  for  mem- 
bership as  early  as  sixteen  years  of  age  were  permitted  to 
take  vows  for  only  three  year  periods,  and  were  not 
allowed  to  take  perpetual  vows  before  they  were  twenty-five. 
By  these  means  a  very  select  and  very  devoted  body  of 
teachers  was  secured." 

The  organization  which  enabled  the  Christian  Brothers 
to  accomplish  so  much  in  the  cause  of  education  is  thus 
set  forth  by  Parker:  "La  Salle  possessed  unusual  talent 
for  organizing  methods  of  teaching.  In  order  to  give  his 
society  the  permanent  benefit  of  his  ideas,  he  wrote 
manuals  of  instruction,  laying  down  general  principles  of 
teaching  and  detailed  devices  for  classroom  management. 
The  most  important  of  these  was  his  'Conduct  of  Christian 
Schools,'  written  about  1695  and  revised  and  printed  in 
1720.  The  Brothers  of  the  Society,  when  sent  to  open  a 
school,  found  in  this  manual  definite  directions  to  follow 
in  having  a  building  constructed,  in  arranging  the  school- 
room, in  securing  books  and  supplies,  and  in  managing 


378  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

and  teaching  the  classes.  Brothers  were  never  sent  singly 
to  open  a  school  but  always  in  pairs,  and  since  they  had 
been  thoroughly  trained  in  teaching  before  being  sent  out, 
the  schools  which  they  opened  always  attracted  especial 
attention  by  their  superiority.  So  much  was  this  the 
case,  that  it  commonly  happened  that  parents  who  could 
afford  to  send  their  children  to  pay  schools  sent  them  to 
the  charity  schools  of  the  Brethren  instead.  This  aroused 
the  jealousy  of  the  guilds,  of  writing  masters,  whose  income 
was  threatened  in  this  way,  and  often  resulted  In  persecu- 
tion of  the  Brethren. 

"Apart  from  the  general  training  in  teaching  and 
management  which  the  Brethren  received,  there  is  one 
special  phase  of  their  methods  which  accounts  in  a  con- 
siderable degree  for  their  superiority,  namely,  the  substi- 
tution of  class  instruction  for  the  methods  of  individual 
instruction." 

The  simultaneous  method  of  instruction  was  mentioned 
by  Comenius  and  it  was  actually  put  in  practice  in  the 
Congregation  of  Notre  Dame  on  the  recommendation  of 
St.  Peter  Fourier.  It  also  appeared  in  other  isolated 
instances.  It  was,  of  course,  employed  in  the  universities, 
but  it  was  through  the  Christian  Brothers  that  it  was 
effectively  introduced  into  general  practice  in  elementary 
education.  With  this  method  was  inseparably  connected 
the  system  of  grading  the  classes  in  the  elementary  school. 
These  two  features  of  elementary  education  have  long 
since  become  universal.  A  characteristic  feature  of  the 
Christian  Brothers'  schools  in  France  at  this  early  date  was 
instruction  in  the  vernacular  before  the  pupils  were 
taught  Latin,  a  practice  which  likewise  has  become 
universal  in  elementary  education.  But  probably  the 
biggest  contribution  made  to  elementary  education  by  the 


THE  CATHOLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM  379 

Brothers  is  to  be  found  in  their  system  of  normal  school 
training  for  elementary  teachers.  A  hundred  and  fifty 
years  later  we  find  the  state  of  Massachusetts,  after  a 
prolonged  agitation  in  the  matter,  establishing  its  first 
normal  schools. 

The  Institute  of  the  Brothers  of  the  Christian  Schools 
offers  a  good  illustration  of  the  system  that  sprang  from 
the  spirit  of  the  Catholic  Church  and  from  the  nature 
of  her  teaching  agencies.  If  the  condition  of  the  schools 
of  early  Massachusetts  be  contrasted  with  the  Christian 
Brother  schools,  one  of  the  effects  of  Protestantism  on 
educational  progress  will  be  readily  perceived.  In 
contrast  to  the  local  districts,  which  fought  bitterly  against 
organization  and  still  in  several  instances  withstand  the 
centralizing  pressure  brought  to  bear  by  the  state  and  by 
commercial  enterprise,  stands  this  Institute  of  teachers 
with  its  world-wide  scope  and  influence. 

The  Brothers  are  governed  by  a  superior-general  elected 
for  life  by  the  general  chapter.  He  is  aided  by  assistants 
who,  at  the  present  time,  number  twelve.  He  delegates 
authority  to  the  visitors,  to  whom  he  confides  the  govern- 
ment of  districts,  and  to  directors,  whom  he  places  in 
charge  of  individual  houses.  With  the  exception  of  the 
superior-general,  all  the  offices  are  temporary  and  renew- 
able. The  general  chapters  are  convoked  at  least  every 
ten  years. 

Teaching  is  not  a  temporary  occupation  among  the 
Brothers.  It  is  accepted  as  a  call  from  God  and  the 
individual  devotes  all  his  zeal  and  seeks  to  attain  his 
perfection  and  his  eternal  reward  in  the  faithful  discharge 
of  his  duties  as  a  teacher  of  the  poor.  He  renounces, 
permanently,  all  earthly  reward  for  his  labors  and  seeks, 
through  unselfish  motives,  to  benefit  and  uplift  the  children 


380  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

of  the  poor  through  the  instruction  which  he  imparts  not 
only  in  the  doctrines  of  revealed  religion,  but  in  the 
practical  conduct  of  life.  His  own  life  is  rendered  effective 
by  example  in  inculcating  social  virtues.  The  organiza- 
tion as  a  whole  is  dominated  by  the  spirit  which  animates 
its  several  members.  A  convincing  proof  of  this  may  be 
seen  in  the  way  the  Institute  and  its  members  have  met 
social  storms  and  upheavals  and  persecution  from  the 
states  which  they  serve  so  faithfully. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  French  Revolution,  we  find  them 
educating,  gratuitously,  36,000  children  of  the  poor  who 
would  otherwise  have  been  left  in  ignorance.  The  state's 
reward  of  then*  labor  in  the  Revolution  was  i  mprisonment  and 
martyrdom.  All  the  schools  of  the  Brothers  in  France 
were  closed  and  the  younger  brothers  were  enrolled  in  the 
army  of  the  Convention.  In  1798,  the  Institute  had  only 
twenty  members  wearing  the  religious  habit  and  exercising 
the  functions  of  education,  out  of  920  brothers  who  were 
occupied  in  teaching  the  French  schools  at  the  outbreak 
of  the  Revolution.  Four  years  later,  they  were  again  per- 
mitted to  take  up  their  work  and,  forgetful  of  the  ingrat- 
itude of  the  people  whom  they  had  served  and  of  the  cruel 
wrongs  that  had  been  inflicted  upon  them,  they  returned  to 
their  life's  work  without  a  murmur.  Everywhere  through 
out  the  country,  the  municipalities  recalled  the  Brothers 
and  besought  them  to  continue  their  beneficent  work  in 
their  midst.  The  community  was  rapidly  reorganized. 
In  1821,  the  Institute  had  more  than  regained  its  former 
strength:  it  numbered  950  Brothers,  310  schools,  and 
50,000  pupils. 

In  the  f ollowing  years  there  ensued  a  grave  pedagogical 
struggle  between  the  Brothers  and  the  powerful  advocates 
of  the  Lancasterian  methods  from  which  the  Brothers 


THE  CATHOLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM  881 

emerged  triumphantly,  thus  giving  proof  of  the  permanent 
value  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  their  methods  and 
organization.  In  1829,  the  Brothers  were  teaching 
67,000  French  children.  Moreover,  the  organization 
during  this  period  and  afterwards  spread  rapidly  through- 
out the  world.  "Belgium  received  Brothers  at  Dinant 
in  1816;  the  Island  of  Bourbon,  1817;  Montreal,  1837; 
Smyrna,  1841;  Baltimore,  1846;  Alexandria,  1847;  New 
York,  1848;  St.  Louis,  1849;  Kemperhof,  near  Coblenz, 
1851;  Singapore,  1852;  Algiers,  1854;  London,  1855; 
Vienna,  1856;  the  Island  of  Mauritius,  1859;  Bucharest, 
1861;  Karikal,  India,  1862;  Quito,  1863.  In  all  of  these 
places,  the  number  of  houses  soon  increased,  and  every- 
where the  same  intellectual  and  religious  results  proved  a 
recommendation  of  the  schools  of  the  Brothers."1  In 
1874,  the  schools  of  the  Institute  numbered  1,149,  the 
teachers,  10,235,  and  their  pupils,  350,000.  The  French 
people  might  well  be  proud  of  the  achievements  of  their 
sons  in  this  teaching  community.  In  the  official  report 
of  the  Universal  Exposition  of  Paris,  in  1900,  we  find  the 
following  statistics:  "The  establishments  of  the  Institute 
of  Brothers  of  the  Christian  Schools,  spread  all  over  the 
world,  number  2,015;  they  comprise  1,500  elementary  or 
high  schools;  47  important  boarding  schools;  45  normal 
schools  or  scholasticates  for  the  training  of  subjects  of  the 
Institute,  and  6  normal  schools  for  lay  teachers;  13  special 
agricultural  schools,  and  a  large  number  of  agricultural 
classes  in  elementary  schools;  48  technical  and  trade 
schools;  82  commercial  schools  or  special  commercial 
courses." 

A  few  years  later,  we  find  France  suppressing  the  Chris- 
brother  Paul  Joseph,   Cath.   Encyc.   Art.   In»t.  of  the  Bros, 
of  the  Chris.  Sch.,  which  see  for  full  account. 


382  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

tian  Brothers,  with  all  the  other  religious  teaching  com- 
munities, in  order  to  establish  a  despotic  centrally- 
controlled  state  system  of  schools  from  which  all  religious 
instruction  is  eliminated.  The  army  of  splendid  teachers 
thus  lost  to  France  did  not,  however,  abandon  their  life 
work.  They  did  not  take  up  the  work  of  teaching  for 
earthly  reward,  nor  did  they  ever  give  up  then*  calling 
because  of  the  ingratitude  or  persecution  of  those  whom 
they  served.  The  Brothers  expelled  from  France,  went 
out  into  the  whole  world  to  strengthen  and  expand  the 
work  of  the  Institute  in  other  countries,  where  they 
shall  remain  until  France  gains  a  realization  of  its  loss  and 
appeals  once  more  to  the  zeal  and  disinterestedness  of  its 
religious  teachers  to  restore  national  life  and  national 
virtue  to  a  long-suffering  country.  Between  1904  and 
1908,  222  houses  were  founded  in  England,  Belgium,  the 
Islands  of  the  Mediterranean,  the  Levant,  North  and  South 
America,  the  West  Indies,  Cape  Colony  and  Australia. 
The  work  of  the  Institute  is  widely  and  favorably  known 
for  the  part  that  it  has  taken  in  the  work  of  Catholic 
education  in  the  United  States  and  Canada. 

We  have  discussed  at  considerable  length  the  scope  and 
work  of  the  Institute  of  the  Christian  Brothers  as  an 
illustration  of  the  genius  and  spirit  of  Catholic  education. 
This  Institute,  however,  is  but  one  of  a  large  number  whose 
history  runs  along  similar  lines  and  whose  achievements 
stand  as  monuments  to  the  zeal  and  disinterestedness 
of  the  religious  communities  which  have  borne  the  burden 
of  Catholic  education  in  this  and  other  lands.  It  would 
require  an.  encyclopedia  to  record  their  deeds  and  to 
analyze  each  separate  community.  Each  has  its  own 
characteristic  features  and  its  own  peculiar  scope,  but 
they  are  all  guided  by  the  same  fundamental  aims  and 


THE  CATHOLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM  383 

are  animated  by  the  same  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and 
devotion  to  the  spread  of  truth,  both  religious  and  secular, 
to  the  formation  of  character,  and  to  the  cultivation  of 
moral  and  social  virtues,  which  have  for  their  enduring 
foundation  faith  in  God  and  love  for  fellow-man. 

From  the  figures  given  in  the  Official  Catholic  Directory, 
for  1916,  it  would  appear  that  there  are  in  the  United 
States  more  than  13,000  members  of  various  religious 
communities  of  men.  Some  of  these  communities,  such 
as  the  Christian  Brothers,  the  Brothers  of  Mary,  the 
Xaverian  Brothers,  etc.,  are  devoted  exclusively  to  the 
work  of  teaching.  The  members  of  the  Society  of  Jesus 
occupy  themselves  with  secondary  and  higher  education 
together  with  missionary  and  parochial  work.  Most  of 
the  communities  engage  in  educational  work  in  addition 
to  the  more  specific  objects  of  their  foundations. 

The  bulk  of  elementary  education  in  our  Catholic 
schools  is  conducted  by  various  teaching  Sisterhoods. 
We  have  no  exact  statistics,  however,  concerning  the 
number  of  Sisters  employed  in  teaching.  Many  of  the 
communities  devote  some  part  of  then*  energy  to  works  of 
charity,  such  as  the  care  of  the  aged  and  infirm,  the  con- 
duct of  hospitals  and  nursing  of  the  sick  poor.  A  few 
communities  are  devoted  exclusively  to  the  work  of  reform, 
and  a  small  number  are  contemplatives  who  do  not 
engage  at  all  in  the  work  of  education.  A  few  of  the 
communities  have  given  no  returns  concerning  their 
membership.  The  figures  available  give  83,573  as  the 
total  number,  including  novices  and  candidates.  There 
are  45  distinct  Franciscan  communities,  having  a  total 
membership  of  13,956;  20  communities  of  the  Sisters  of 
Charity,  having  a  membership  of  10,410;  28  communities 
of  Sisters  of  St.  Joseph,  having  a  membership  of  8,561; 


384  PHILOSOPHY  OF   EDUCATION 

3  distinct  congregations  of  Sisters  of  Notre  Dame,  with 
a  total  membership  of  7,352;  the  Sisters  of  Mercy  are 
represented  by  56  communities,  with  a  membership  of 
7,718;  30  different  Dominican  communities  have  a  total 
membership  of  6,129;  28  Benedictine  communities  have  a 
membership  of  1,340.  The  Ursuline  nuns  in  the  union 
and  in  16  separate  houses  have  a  membership  of  1,931; 
3  congregations  of  the  Sisters  of  the  Immaculate  Heart 
total  1,576;  there  are  1,523  Sisters  of  the  Good  Shepherd; 
1,289  Sisters  of  Providence;  1,246  Sisters  of  the  Precious 
Blood,  distributed  in  3  communities;  1,158  Religious  of 
the  Sacred  Heart;  1,134  Sisters  of  the  Holy  Names; 
1,047  Sisters  of  the  Holy  Cross;  980  Sisters  of  the  Holy 
Family  of  Nazareth;  966  Presentation  nuns  in  11  com- 
munities; 810  Visitandines  in  20  houses;  800  Little  Sisters 
of  the  Poor;  782  Sisters  of  Charity  of  the  Incarnate  Word; 
766  Sisters  of  Loretto;  593  Poor  Handmaids;  556  Sisters 
of  St.  Agnes,  and  9,944  sisters  in  86  smaller  communities. 

The  number  of  novices  and  candidates  given  in  the 
various  reports  total  8,393,  but  this  number  is  much  too 
small,  many  of  the  communities  having  failed  to  make 
returns  separately,  having  either  included  the  novices 
and  candidates  in  their  total  membership  or  having 
omitted  them  altogether.  The  educational  work  of  this 
army  of  Catholic  teachers  is  summed  up  as  follows  in 
the  Directory  for  1916:  seminaries,  85,  with  a  student 
enrollment  of  6,200;  colleges  for  boys,  210;  academies  for 
girls,  685;  parish  schools,  5,588,  with  an  enrollment  of 
1,497,949;  orphan  asylums,  283,  with  an  enrollment  of 
48,089.  To  this  should  be  added  several  colleges  for 
women  conducted  by  Sisters. 

In  a  certain  sense,  each  teaching  community  represents 
a  system  of  education  peculiarly  its  own.  It  trains  its 


THE  CATHOLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM  385 

teachers,  carries  on  its  own  educational  traditions  and 
has  its  distinctive  literary  predilections,  and  has  more  or 
less  distinctly  formulated  its  own  methods.  It  is  evident, 
of  course,  that  further  organization  and  centralization  is 
both  desirable  and  necessary.  This,  too,  is  provided  for 
in  the  genius  of  the  Church. 

The  elementary  schools  of  each  diocese  are  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  bishop,  nor  does  this  jurisdiction  ter- 
minate with  the  elementary  schools.  The  secondary  and 
higher  schools,  when  not  under  his  complete  control,  are 
subject  in  a  varying  extent  to  his  jurisdiction.  Thus, 
each  diocese  tends  to  bring  all  its  schools  into  a  unit 
system  with  as  little  interference,  however,  as  the  circum- 
stances will  permit  with  the  spirit  and  the  work  of  the 
several  teaching  communities  which  labor  in  the  diocesan 
schools. 

Another  element  that  had  to  be  dealt  with  by  our 
Catholic  schools  is  found  in  their  tendency  to  organize 
along  national  lines.  The  parents  and  the  children, 
frequently,  could  not  speak  English  and  the  work  of 
education  had  to  be  undertaken  in  then*  several  tongues 
and  carried  on  in  the  various  vernaculars  until  such 
time  as  sufficient  familiarity  with  English  was  attained 
to  permit  of  the  different  nationalities  meeting  in  a  single 
school. 

In  early  colonial  days,  great  difficulty  was  experienced 
in  providing  teachers  for  our  Catholic  schools.  The 
pastor  frequently  taught  the  school  himself,  and  when 
his  other  duties  became  too  onerous,  he  employed  Catholic 
laymen  and  women  for  the  work.  In  the  missions  con- 
ducted by  religious  communities,  the  conduct  of  the  school 
was  an  easier  matter,  as  the  teachers  were  supplied  by  the 
communities.  In  the  course  of  time,  various  religious 


386  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

communities  were  obtained  from  Europe  for  the  work  of 
Catholic  education  and  other  communities  were  founded 
here.  With  the  tide  of  Catholic  immigration  during  the 
middle  and  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the 
demand  for  religious  teaching  communities  became  very 
urgent,  and,  in  spite  of  the  generous  response  from  Euro- 
pean countries  and  from  our  own  girls,  the  demand  is 
still  much  greater  than  the  supply. 

The  bishops  of  the  United  States  were,  from  the  early 
days,  keenly  conscious  both  of  the  need  of  Catholic 
schools  and  of  the  need  of  standardizing  and  organizing 
the  schools  of  each  diocese.  When  it  became  evident, 
as  a  result  of  the  controversy  in  New  York  between  the 
Catholic  schools  and  the  state  systems,  that  religion  was 
henceforth  to  be  excluded  from  the  curriculum  of  state- 
supported  schools,  the  Catholic  Church  set  to  work  with 
renewed  vigor  to  build  up  its  own  system.  The  Second 
Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore,  held  in  1853,  took  up  the 
matter  and  urged  the  building  up  of  Catholic  schools 
throughout  the  country:  "We  exhort  the  bishops,  and  in 
view  of  the  grave  evils  which  usually  result  from  the 
defective  education  of  youth,  we  beseech  them  through  the 
bowels  of  the  mercy  of  God  to  see  that  schools  be  estab- 
lished in  connection  with  all  of  the  churches  of  their 
diocese;  and,  if  it  be  necessary  and  circumstances  permit, 
to  provide  from  the  revenues  of  the  church  to  which  the 
school  is  attached,  for  the  support  of  competent  teachers."1 
The  Second  Provincial  Council  of  Cincinnati,  held  five 
years  later,  issued  a  decree  with  a  similar  purpose  in  view: 
"It  is  the  judgment  of  the  Fathers  that  all  pastors  are 
bound,  under  pain  of  mortal  sin,  to  provide  a  Catholic 
school  in  every  parish  or  congregation  subject  to  them, 

1  Decreta  Cone.  Prov.  et  Prov.  Balto.,  n.  13,  p.  47. 


THE  CATHOLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM  387 

where  this  can  be  done;  and  in  order  that  each  Ordinary 
may  know  what  are  the  parishes  in  which  the  obligation 
exists,  they  decree  that  the  Tridentine  Law1  is  to  be 
practically  enforced,  by  which  the  rectors  of  churches 
are  required  each  year  to  render  an  exact  account  to  their 
Ordinaries  of  all  the  revenues  accruing  to  their  churches 
in  any  way,  which  they  therefore  strictly  enjoin  as  to 
be  observed  by  the  aforesaid  rectors."2 

The  efforts  of  the  Church  towards  extending  Catholic 
education  in  the  United  States  and  towards  perfecting 
and  systematizing  the  work  of  existing  Catholic  schools 
was  further  manifested  hi  an  "Instruction  to  the  Bishops 
of  the  United  States  Concerning  Public  Schools"  issued 
by  the  Congregation  of  the  Propaganda  in  1875,  and  by 
the  decrees  of  the  Third  Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore 
in  1884.  In  its  instruction  the  Congregation  of  the 
Propaganda  points  out  the  urgent  need  of  perfecting  our 
Catholic  schools,  both  for  the  sake  of  the  Church  and  for 
the  good  of  the  Republic:  "All  are  agreed  that  there  is 
nothing  so  needed  to  this  end  as  the  establishment  of 
Catholic  schools  in  every  place — and  schools  in  no  way 
inferior  to  the  public  ones.  Every  effort,  then,  must  be 
directed  towards  starting  Catholic  schools  where  they 
are  not,  and,  where  they  are,  towards  enlarging  them  and 
providing  them  with  better  accommodations  and  equip- 
ment until  they  have  nothing  to  suffer,  as  regards  teachers 
or  equipment,  by  comparison  with  the  public  schools."3 

The  Third  Plenary  Council  took  active  measures  to 
realize  the  Church's  desire  for  a  more  perfect  system  of 
Catholic  schools.  In  the  first  place,  they  made  it  binding 


1  S.  xxii,  c.  ix. 

1  Cone.  Prov.  Cine.  Acta.  et  Dec.  Decretum  vi.  New  York,  1886. 

•  Cone.  Plen.  Bait.  iii.  Acta,  Dec.  279  Append..  Baltimore.  188«. 


388  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

upon  all  Catholics  to  build  up  and  support  Catholic 
schools  and  to  send  their  children  to  them.  The  following 
exhortation  was  issued  by  it  to  the  laity:  "Therefore 
we  not  only  exhort  Catholic  parents  with  paternal  love, 
but  we  also  command  them  with  all  of  the  authority  in  our 
power,  to  procure  for  their  beloved  offspring,  given  to 
them  by  God,  reborn  in  Christ  in  Baptism,  and  destined 
for  Heaven,  a  truly  Christian  and  Catholic  education,  and 
to  defend  and  safeguard  them  from  the  dangers  of  an 
education  merely  secular  during  the  entire  period  of 
childhood  and  youth;  and  therefore  to  send  them  to 
parish  schools  or  others  truly  Catholic,  unless  perchance 
the  Ordinary,  in  a  particular  case,  should  judge  that  it 
might  be  permitted  otherwise."  The  Fathers  of  the 
Council  did  not  content  themselves  with  exhorting  the 
clergy  and  the  laity  in  this  important  matter.  They 
issued  the  following  decree  which  was  made  binding  on 
bishops  and  clergy  as  well  as  on  the  laity:  "Near  each 
church,  where  it  does  not  yet  exist,  a  parish  school  is  to 
be  erected  within  two  years  from  the  promulgation  of  this 
Council,  and  is  to  be  maintained  in  perpetuum,  unless 
the  bishop,  on  account  of  grave  difficulties,  judge  that 
a  postponement  be  allowed.  .  .  .  All  Catholic  parents 
are  bound  to  send  their  children  to  the  parish  schools, 
unless  either  at  home  or  in  other  Catholic  schools  they 
may  sufficiently  provide  for  the  Christian  education  of 
then*  children,  or  unless  it  be  lawful  to  send  them  to  other 
schools  on  account  of  a  sufficient  cause,  approved  by  the 
bishop,  and  with  opportune  cautions  and  remedies. 
As  to  what  is  a  Catholic  school,  it  is  left  to  the  judgment 
of  the  Ordinary  to  define."1 
The  Council,  besides  taking  measures  to  secure  a  suffi- 

1  Cone.  Plen.  Bait.  Ter.  Acta  Dec.  196-9. 


THE  CATHOLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM  389 

cient  number  of  schools  and  the  general  attendance  of 
Catholic  children,  took  up  the  matter  of  organizing 
definite  diocesan  school  systems.  As  a  result  of  the  legis- 
lation then  enacted  hi  this  matter,  school  boards,  consisting 
of  priests  of  the  diocese,  have  been  appointed  by  the 
bishops  in  two-thirds  of  the  dioceses  of  the  United  States. 
The  bishop  and  his  vicar-general  are  ex  officio  members 
of  the  school  board.  Provision  is  usually  made  for 
diocesan  superintendents,  for  school  visitors  and  examiners, 
for  teachers  and,  hi  many  instances,  for  community 
inspectors. 

The  fruits  of  this  appeal  to  the  faith  and  zeal  of  our 
Catholic  priests  and  people  is  sufficiently  manifest  in  the 
figures  given  above.  Progress  has  also  been  made  towards 
organizing  the  parochial  schools  into  diocesan  systems, 
but  the  unifying  and  perfecting  of  the  Catholic  school 
system  of  the  United  States  is  a  matter  of  no  little  diffi- 
culty. It  requires  time  and  opportunity  for  the  proper 
training  of  school  officers,  and  for  the  creating  of  other 
agencies  rendered  necessary  by  the  nature  of  the  task. 

The  need  of  a  definite  system  which  would  include  all 
our  Catholic  schools  is  as  apparent  as  the  difficulty  of 
creating  such  a  system.  Our  people  frequently  change 
their  residence  from  one  section  of  the  city  to  another, 
or  follow  their  employment  from  one  state  to  another. 
Under  such  circumstances  it  is  evidently  a  great  dis- 
advantage that  the  children  taken  out  of  one  parochial 
school  should  find  themselves  wholly  out  of  place  in 
another  school  which  happens  to  be  conducted  by  a 
different  religious  community  with  its  predilection  for 
its  own  curriculum  and  methods.  It  is  also  much  to  be 
desired  that  a  child  passing  from  an  elementary  school 
to  a  secondary  school  should  be  able  to  do  so  without 


390  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

feeling  a  break  in  the  continuity  of  the  educative  process, 
and  the  same  is  true  of  the  need  of  close  articulation 
between  the  secondary  and  higher  educational  institutions. 
In  these  various  respects  there  is  still  much  room  for 
improvement.  Before  this  can  be  wholly  achieved,  our 
teaching  forces  must  gain  a  clear  realization  of  the  diffi- 
culties of  the  situation  and  an  understanding  of  the  reme- 
dies to  be  employed.  Until  this  educational  propaganda 
has  been  sufficiently  carried  out,  legislation  will  have  little 
effect. 

Each  of  the  multitude  of  teaching  communities  engaged 
in  the  work  of  education  in  the  United  States  has,  as  was 
pointed  out  above,  its  own  peculiar  system,  its  own 
normal  school,  its  own  ideals  and  traditions  concerning 
the  content  of  the  curriculum,  the  grading  of  the  classes, 
the  text-books,  and  the  methods  to  be  employed.  This, 
of  course,  is  infinitely  better  than  the  old  district  system 
of  Massachusetts,  in  which  each  school  was  isolated  and 
where  there  existed  neither  normal  schools  for  the  training 
of  teachers  nor  worthy  ideals  in  matters  of  curriculum, 
text-books  or  methods,  but  where  many  different  com- 
munities are  employed  in  a  single  city,  it  is  evident  that 
something  should  be  done  to  secure  a  reasonable  uni- 
formity. This  need  is  still  further  intensified  by  the 
fact  that  the  Catholic  schools  are  frequently  obliged  to 
meet  the  needs  of  the  various  nationalities  that  are  pouring 
into  our  cities,  Jbringing  with  them  their  own  vernacular 
and  national  customs. 

It  should  be  further  noted  that,  were  each  diocese  to  go 
its  own  way,  a  solution  of  our  difficulty  could  not  be  had, 
no  matter  how  perfect  the  diocesan  system  might  be. 
There  are  a  hundred  dioceses  in  the  United  States,  and 
were  the  community  systems  entirely  removed,  to  be  sub- 


THE  CATHOLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM  391 

stituted  by  diocesan  systems,  we  would  merely  reduce 
somewhat  the  total  number  of  systems  and  remove  the  con- 
flict from  local  areas,  but  our  people  would  still  suffer  when 
moving  from  diocese  to  diocese,  as  they  are  so  frequently 
obliged  to  do  under  present  economic  conditions.  More- 
over, this  hundredfold  division  would  weaken  immeasu- 
rably the  Catholic  educational  cause.  It  is  true  that 
a  good  diocesan  system  is  the  first  step  towards  a 
general  Catholic  educational  system,  but  this  step  cannot 
be  taken  effectively  until  diocesan  school  superintendents, 
or  other  diocesan  school  officers,  be  properly  trained  for 
the  difficult  task  assigned  them.  Where  shall  this  training 
be  obtained?  Not  in  the  normal  school  of  any  one  relig- 
ious community.  Such  a  procedure  would  at  once  raise 
up  difficulties  with  all  the  other  communities  in  the 
diocese.  If  union  and  system  is  to  be  obtained,  the 
various  factors  must  meet  on  neutral  ground  and  the 
training  of  the  diocesan  officers  must  be  broader  than  that 
obtainable  in  any  single  community. 

The  Third  Plenary  Council  of  Baltimore,  instinct  with 
the  genius  of  Catholic  organization,  not  only  urged  the 
building  of  Catholic  schools  and  the  organization  of 
diocesan  systems,  but  took  a  further  step  to  secure  unity 
of  the  entire  Catholic  school  system  of  the  country  by 
petitioning  Rome  to  found  a  great  Pontifical  University 
in  this  country  which  would  serve  as  the  center  of  unity 
for  the  entire  system  of  Catholic  schools  and  which  would 
offer  the  highest  training  for  supervisory  officers  and 
faculties  in  Catholic  educational  institutions  of  all  grades. 

In  founding  the  University  and  defining  its  scope, 
Pope  Leo  XIII  made  provision  for  its  thoroughly  catholic 
character.  It  was  to  admit  to  its  faculty  and  its  student 
body,  without  discrimination,  members  of  the  various 


392  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

religious  communities  and  teaching  orders,  the  secular 
clergy  and  the  laity,  and  its  influence  was  to  extend  to 
all  other  Catholic  educational  institutions  in  the  country, 
serving  to  bring  unity,  harmony  and  high  standing  to  all 
of  them  in  all  things  pertaining  to  Catholic  faith,  morals, 
and  enlightened  scholarship.  He  says,  in  His  Apostolic 
Letter,  "Magna  Nobis  Gaudia,"  under  date  of  March  7, 
1887:  "We  exhort  you  all  that  you  shall  take  care  to 
affiliate  with  your  university,  your  seminaries,  colleges, 
and  other  Catholic  institutions  according  to  the  plan 
suggested  in  the  Constitutions,  in  such  a  manner  as  not  to 
destroy  their  autonomy." 

From  its  inception,  the  idea  of  a  training  school  for  the 
teaching  profession  was  associated  with  the  work  of  the 
University.  Archbishop  Keane,  its  first  Rector,  in  an 
article  on  the  Universities  of  France,  published  in  1888, 
said:  "Our  seminaries  and  colleges,  already  numerous  and 
excellent,  must  be  still  more  multiplied  and  perfected 
hi  order  to  meet  the  demands  of  a  rapidly  increasing  and 
steadily  progressing  Catholic  population.  The  religious 
orders  and  congregations  established  for  that  special 
work  are  already  in  sore  need  of  helpers  in  so  wide  a  field, 
and  these  must  be  prepared  for  their  important  task, 
not  only  by  especially  wide  and  profound  studies,  but 
also  by  the  normal  training  that  will  fit  them  to  impart 
knowledge  successfully." 

It  was  to  further  the  interests  of  unity  and  high  stand- 
ards in  our  Catholic  educational  institutions  that  Bishop 
Shahan,  the  present  Rector  of  the  University,  founded 
the  Catholic  University  BuUetin,  in  January,  1895.  In  the 
Prospectus,  he  says:  "The  methods  of  teaching  will 
receive  special  attention  as  well  as  the  history  and  theories, 
old  and  new,  of  higher  pedagogics  in  general.  Questions 


THE  CATHOLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM 

and  discussions  of  an  educational  nature  will  find  frequent 
treatment  in  its  pages,  inasmuch  as  they  affect  the  actual 
teaching  of  the  university,  by  enlightening,  suggesting, 
correcting,  and  keeping  the  minds  of  professors  and 
students  ever  open  to  the  freshest  and  healthiest  influences 
that  arise  from  the  comparison  of  the  science  of  teaching 
in  the  past  and  elsewhere  with  the  system  in  vogue 
amongst  us  and  the  improvements  of  our  own  age." 

A  further  step  towards  unification  of  our  educational 
forces  was  taken  by  the  Rector  of  the  University,  who 
issued  a  call  to  the  colleges  and  seminaries  to  organize  a 
Catholic  Educational  Association.  The  first  annual 
convention  was  held  in  1904.  Bishop  O'Connell  was 
elected  president,  an  office  which  the  Rector  of  the 
University  has  since  continued  to  hold.  The  Association 
meets  annually  and  issues  a  volume  of  its  Proceedings. 
Its  membership  is  representative  of  the  teaching  forces 
of  the  Catholic  schools  of  the  United  States,  and  during 
the  twelve  years  of  its  existence  it  has  accomplished 
much  for  unity  and  uplift  by  bringing  together,  for  mutual 
benefit  and  discussion,  members  of  the  various  teaching 
communities  and  the  teaching  staffs  of  various  educational 
institutions.  The  University  is  gradually  assembling 
about  itself,  houses  of  the  various  teaching  communities, 
and  offering  to  then*  members  the  advantages  of  higher 
education  and  training  in  the  science  and  art  of  teaching. 
In  1905  the  University  opened  the  Department  of  Education 
with  the  express  aim  of  training  diocesan  superintendents. 

From  1902  onward,  professors  of  the  Catholic  University 
gave  courses  of  lectures  on  Pedagogy  at  the  motherhouses 
of  several  teaching  communities  and  at  diocesan  insti- 
tutes. In  1911  the  Catholic  University  organized 
the  Catholic  Sisters  College  in  which  the  teaching 


394  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

is  done  exclusively  by  University  professors.  Prom 
that  date  to  the  present,  some  2,000  Sisters  have 
attended  courses  at  the  Sisters  College  and  many  have 
remained  to  take  the  degrees  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  and 
Master  of  Arts  and  a  few  have  attained  the  coveted 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy.  The  graduates  of  the 
Sisters  College,  in  many  instances,  have  taken  up  work 
in  the  normal  novitiates  of  their  communities.  The 
Sisters  College  has  thus  become  a  factor  of  great  impor- 
tance, not  only  in  unifying  the  teaching  forces  of  the 
several  dioceses,  but  in  building  up  a  nation-wide  system 
of  Catholic  schools. 

In  1912  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  University 
prescribed  conditions  under  which  Catholic  high  schools 
and  colleges  might  be  affiliated  to  the  University.  In  the 
four  years  that  have  elapsed  nearly  150  of  our  leading  Cath- 
olic high  schools  and  academies  have  taken  advantage  of 
this  opportunity.  The  University,  through  a  board  of 
professors,  regulates  the  curriculum  of  these  schools. 
The  students'  examinations  at  the  close  of  each  year  are 
conducted  under  then*  direction  and  the  papers  are 
examined  by  University  instructors.  The  teachers  hi 
many  of  these  schools  have  been  trained  in  the  University, 
a  fact  which  contributes  in  no  small  degree  to  the  unifica- 
tion of  the  system. 

The  Department  of  Education  in  the  University  con- 
tributes still  further  to  the  unifying  influence  in  the 
Catholic  education  of  this  country  by  the  training  which 
it  affords  to  prospective  teachers  in  Catholic  schools  of 
all  grades,  and  by  the  Catholic  Educational  Review,  which 
was  founded  in  1911  and  which  is  conducted  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Department  of  Education.  To  this 
should  be  added  a  system  of  text-books  and  manuals 


THE  CATHOLIC  SCHOOL  SYSTEM  395 

which  are  being  brought  out  by  the  instructors  of  this 
department. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  unity  of  the  Catholic  school 
system  is  being  achieved  through  an  appeal  to  internal 
forces  instead  of  through  coercive  legal  enactments.  The 
Church  is  never  hasty  in  her  actions.  She  counts  upon 
the  good-will,  the  faith,  obedience  and  disinterested 
motives  of  her  children.  Hence  the  organizations  which 
have  grown  up  within  her  membership  have  a  vitality 
and  power  wholly  unknown  to  societies  which  rely  upon 
the  legal  enactments  of  majorities  to  achieve  then*  aims. 

In  this  respect,  the  contrast  between  the  organization 
and  development  of  the  state  school  systems  of  this  country 
and  the  Catholic  school  system  is  illuminating.  The 
state  systems  did  not  emerge  until  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century  and  a  national  system  has  not  yet 
been  attempted.  The  recommendations  looking  towards 
the  establishment  of  a  national  university  made  by  the 
first  president  of  the  republic  have  not  yet  been  carried 
into  effect.  Compulsory  education  laws  have  been  passed 
in  the  several  states  which  are  enforced  by  truant  officers. 
The  authority  of  the  state  has  been  invoked  to  compel 
the  Jocal  support  of  schools  and  various  state  subsidies 
have  been  used  as  an  incentive  to  secure  the  proper  length 
of  school  terms  and  the  proper  training  of  teachers. 
The  only  means  at  its  disposal  to  secure  an  adequate 
supply  of  teachers  is  an  increase  of  salary,  thus  reducing 
the  work  of  teaching  from  a  professional  basis  to  an 
economic  function. 

The  Church,  on  the  contrary,  appeals  to  the  faith  and 
zeal  of  the  Catholics  in  each  parish  to  support  its  school; 
she  appeals  to  the  love  of  parents  to  make  the  necessary 
sacrifices  to  send  then-  children  to  Catholic  secondary  and 


396  PHILOSOPHY   OF  EDUCATION 

higher  schools,  and  her  appeals  have  not  been  in  vain. 
In  her  educational  work,  she  relies  upon  the  zeal  of  her 
children  for  the  spread  of  the  Catholic  faith  and  of  Catholic 
ideals,  and  she  appeals  to  their  patriotism  to  secure  schools 
that  will  give  the  best  possible  training  for  citizenship 
while  not  neglecting  proper  training  for  membership  in 
the  household  of  the  faith.  From  her  endeavors  in  these 
respects,  there  has  resulted  a  Catholic  school  system  in 
this  country  which,  in  extent  and  efficiency,  in  the  face 
of  grave  difficulties,  including  hostile  public  opinion  and 
double  taxation,  constitutes  an  imperishable  monument  to 
the  vitality  of  the  Catholic  Church  in.  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE  CURRICULUM 

The  curriculum,  or  course  of  study,  employed  by  the 
school  for  the  achievement  of  the  various  aims  of  education 
has  very  naturally  shared  in  the  profound  changes  that 
have  taken  place  in  the  general  concept  of  the  purposes 
to  be  achieved  by  the  school.  In  like  manner,  the 
curriculum  hi  the  different  units  of  the  school  system 
naturally  undergoes  changes  in  accordance  with  the 
more  or  less  clearly  defined  purposes  of  the  several  units 
and  in  accordance  with  the  changes  brought  about  in  the 
various  departments  of  human  knowledge  by  the  research 
work  of  scholars. 

Again,  the  curriculum  of  the  elementary  or  Volksschule 
of  Prussia  is  intended  as  a  complete  education  for  children 
in  the  humbler  walks  of  life.  Those  more  fortunate 
children  who  are  destined  for  higher  careers,  pass  up  to 
the  University  by  way  of  the  Vorschule  and  the  Gym- 
nasium. In  this  country,  on  the  contrary,  the  elementary 
school  is  intended  to  meet  the  needs  of  those  who  terminate 
their  school  career  upon  graduation  from  the  eighth  grade 
and  the  needs  of  those  who,  after  completing  its  course, 
are  destined  to  receive  the  highest  university  or  pro- 
fessional training  afforded  hi  the  land. 

In  Europe  generally,  the  higher  educational  institutions 
gradually  worked  their  way  downward  to  meet  the  needs 
of  the  people;  whereas  in  this  country  the  starting  point 
is  to  be  found  in  the  elementary  school,  which,  after 
completing  its  own  development,  gave  the  preparation 
and  the  stimulus  for  the  development  of  the  secondary 
school.  In  recent  years,  it  is  true,  the  university  has 

397 


398  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

reached  down  to  the  secondary  school  and  has  undertaken 
to  control  its  curriculum  and  to  fix  its  standards. 

In  the  curriculum  of  the  Catholic  school,  religion  holds 
the  central  place,  the  remaining  branches  being  arranged 
around  it  and  in  relation  to  it;  whereas,  since  the  days 
of  Horace  Mann,  religion  has  been  banished  from  the 
curriculum  of  the  state  school  and  in  its  place  other  centers 
of  organization  have  been  sought.  The  history  of  the 
curricula  of  the  state  schools  and  the  Catholic  schools  has 
very  naturally  run  along  distinct  lines,  though  from  the 
nature  of  the  case  they  never  can  be  wholly  independent 
of  each  other.  The  Catholic  school,  while  not  following 
the  public  school  system  in  the  curriculum  or  its  organiza- 
tion, must,  nevertheless,  take  into  account  the  various 
studies  taught  in  the  public  schools  and  the  extent  to 
which  the  several  studies  are  carried  in  each  grade. 

Professor  Parker,  speaking  of  the  curriculum  in  the  early 
schools  in  Massachusetts,  says:  "The  narrow  religious 
conception  of  elementary  education  which  had  developed 
during  the  Reformation  and  the  period  of  religious  strife 
continued  in  force  down  to  the  nineteenth  century.  This 
conception  was  represented  in  its  most  intense  and  narrow 
form  among  the  Massachusetts  Puritans,  and  paralleled 
the  narrowness  of  then1  life  in  its  other  aspects."1 

The  attitude  of  the  adult  community  towards  art, 
science,  and  learning  is  inevitably  reflected  in  the  cur- 
riculum of  its  school.  In  the  Catholic  school  the  local 
attitude  is  tempered  and  modified  by  the  wider  and 
higher  educational  concepts  of  the  Church.  In  New 
England,  however,  there  was  no  dominant  external  cultural 
force  to  modify  or  broaden  the  narrow  and  harsh  concepts 
of  the  Puritan  colonists  who,  through  the  local  community, 

1  Parker,  Hist.  Mod.  Elem.  Educ..  Boston,  1912,  p.  67. 


THE  CURRICULUM  399 

without  assistance  or  interference  from  any  outside 
authority  of  the  church  or  state,  determined  the  curriculum 
for  each  local  school. 

There  was  little  secular  English  literature  read  in  the 
Puritan  colonies.  It  is  said  that  there  was  not  even  a 
copy  of  Shakespeare's  plays  in  Massachusetts  during  the 
seventeenth  century.  The  reading  of  the  colonists 
consisted,  chiefly,  of  the  Bible,  Bailey's  "Practice  of 
Piety,"  the  "Day  of  Doom"  of  Michael  Wigglesworth, 
and  similar  compositions.  The  Puritan's  attitude  toward 
art  and  music  was  still  more  intolerant.  "Puritanism 
habitually  regarded  religion  and  beauty  as  antagonists." 
Music  was  forbidden  in  their  churches  and  was  accused 
of  "bewitching  the  mind  with  syrenes  sound."  Parker 
tells  us  that  "in  the  seventeenth  century,  singing  grew  so 
uncommon  in  New  England  that  only  some  eight  or  ten 
tunes  were  in  general  use.  There  were  places  where  only 
the  name  of  the  tune  was  familiar,  the  music  having 
been  miserably  tortured  and  twisted  and  quavered  into  a 
horrible  medley  of  confused  and  disorderly  noises."1 

Science  had  scarcely  more  influence  on  the  Puritan 
colonists  than  had  art.  They  believed  that  the  earth 
was  the  center  of  the  universe,  and  that  the  phases  of  the 
moon  should  regulate  the  killing  of  animals,  the  harvesting 
of  crops,  and  many  other  human  affairs.  Their  belief  in 
Demonology,  their  attitude  towards  witches,  and  the 
control  of  human  affairs  by  the  stars,  was  on  a  plane 
with  their  belief  that  birds  hibernated  in  the  mud  at  the 
bottom  of  ponds  and  that  the  charcoal  resulting  from 
burned  toads  could  cure  all  manner  of  skin  diseases.  "On 
the  one  hand,  there  existed  intense  mental  activity  and 
interest  in  the  field  of  religion  and  theology;  on  the  other 

I0p.  rit..  p.  70. 


400  PHILOSOPHY   OF  EDUCATION 

hand,   indifference   and  opposition   in  the  field  of   art,"1 
ignorance  and  superstition  in  the  field  of  science."1 

The  curriculum  enforced  by  law  in  the  elementary 
schools  of  Massachusetts  from  1647  to  1789  included  only 
reading  and  writing.  At  the  latter  date,  arithmetic,  the 
English  language,  orthography  and  decent  behavior  were 
added.  Down  to  a  few  decades  ago,  the  curriculum  of 
the  state  school  was  confined,  for  the  most  part,  to  the 
school  arts,  reading,  writing,  spelling,  arithmetic,  geog- 
raphy, and  history,  the  latter  two  subjects  being  reduced 
to  a  brief  compendia  of  names  and  dates  to  be  committed 
to  memory  by  the  pupils. 

From  this  narrow  concept  of  the  curriculum,  the 
pendulum  in  our  day  has  swung  to  the  opposite  extreme. 
The  curriculum  has  been  so  enriched  of  late  that  it  taxes 
severely  both  teacher  and  pupil.  One  tendency  is  to 
continue  adding  subjects  to  lengthen  the  course,  and,  if 
necessary,  to  make  it  more  elective.  But  here  and  there 
a  voice  is  heard  hi  opposition.  It  is  claimed  that  too 
many  things  are  taught  and  too  little  real  teaching  of  the 
pupil  is  done. 

The  pivotal  question  in  this  debate  seems  to  be:  What 
is  the  course  of  study  supposed  to  accomplish?  If  its 
aim  is  to  fit  the  boy  or  girl  for  some  particular  line  of 
work,  such  as  a  trade  or  one  of  the  mechanical  arts,  then 
the  best  plan  is  to  make  a  place  in  the  curriculum  for 
every  branch  of  knowledge  that  may  possibly  prove  helpful 
in  a  future  occupation.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  main 
object  of  the  school  is  to  secure  breadth,  culture  and  power, 
to  develop  individual  capacity  and  thus  enable  the  pupil 
to  make  a  judicious  choice  of  his  subsequent  career,  the 
problem  is  not  so  much  the  addition  of  new  subjects  as 

1  Parker,  op.  cit.,  71. 


THE  CURRICULUM  401 

the  selection  of  the  subjects  best  adapted  to  the  purpose  ol 
the  school  and  the  proper  teaching  of  the  subjects  selected. 

The  latter  view  prevailed  in  the  medieval  schools  which 
insisted  on  a  thorough  drill  in  the  seven  liberal  arts 
before  the  student  was  permitted  to  take  up  advanced 
work  in  special  and  professional  lines.  The  growth  of 
the  natural  sciences  during  the  last  four  centuries  has 
had  two  effects:  it  has  increased  the  number  of  subjects 
to  be  taught,  and  has  made  specialization  a  necessity 
for  the  student  who  desires  to  bring  his  own  contribution 
to  the  development  of  any  science.  The  work  of  investiga- 
tion carried  on  hi  the  university  makes  continually  fresh 
demands  upon  the  preparatory  schools.  In  this  country, 
the  student  is  obliged  to  enter  as  early  as  possible  upon  his 
life  work  in  business  or  one  of  the  professions,  hence  the 
tendency  to  shorten  the  college  course  or  to  eliminate  it 
altogether,  and,  as  a  result,  the  tendency  to  crowd  the 
school  curriculum.  The  need  of  adjustment  between 
elementary  schools,  secondary  schools,  and  the  university 
is  at  once  evident,  as  is  also  the  need  of  correlating  the 
various  school  subjects,  and  both  of  these  problems  are 
receiving  increased  attention  at  the  present  time. 

It  would  seem  that  the  settlement  of  this  whole  problem 
must  be  achieved  in  the  light  of  our  growing  knowledge 
of  genetic  psychology.  From  the  advances  in  this  field 
thus  far  made,  the  conviction  is  reached  that  education 
does  not  consist  in  loading  the  memory  with  details  nor 
in  forcing  the  pupils  to  learn  things  that  are  devoid  of 
interest.  On  the  side  of  affective  consciousness,  the 
conviction  is  gaining  ground  that  moral  training  should 
not  be  given  by  prohibitions  that,  too  frequently,  suggest 
wrongdoing  so  much  as  by  the  positive  teaching  of  what 
is  right,  reinforced  by  attractive  concrete  examples. 


402  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

Progress  in  educational  science  is  gradually  establishing 
a  number  of  guiding  principles  for  the  selection  of  teachers 
and  for  the  shaping  of  curricula.  These  principles,  how- 
ever, are  not  new,  nor  is  then*  operation  of  recent  date. 
They  may  be  found  in  then*  most  perfect  embodiment 
even  at  the  present  day  hi  the  liturgy  and  organic  teaching 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  they  have  always  exerted 
then*  influence  more  or  less  directly  and  strongly  upon  the 
curricula  of  all  her  schools,  whether  elementary  or 
advanced. 

The  Church's  direct  mission  is,  of  course,  to  teach 
religion,  but  the  religion  she  teaches  is  not  a  thing  apart 
from  life.  Her  mission  is  to  teach  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ  which  was  meant  to  redeem  mankind  from  sin 
and  sorrow,  from  the  narrowness  and  harshness  of  the 
Scribe  and  Pharisee,  no  less  than  from  the  weakness  of 
human  flesh.  The  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  must  enter 
the  home,  it  must  sanctify  and  render  enduring  the  tie 
that  binds  man  and  wife  together  and  consecrate  then* 
sacrifices  for  their  offspring  and  protect  the  right  to  life 
and  happiness  of  even  the  unborn  infant.  It  teaches 
children  their  duty  of  love  and  obedience  to  their  parents 
and  enforces  the  obligations  of  parents  to  protect  and 
guide  hi  the  paths  of  virtue  the  children  given  to  them 
by  God.  Nor  does  religion  hi  its  teaching  remain  within 
the  home.  It  enforces  the  sanctity  of  the  oath,  the  bind- 
ing character  of  the  contract,  and  the  inviolable  laws  of 
equity  in  the  government  of  man's  temporal  possessions. 
It  insists  that  every  man  shall  discharge  his  duties  towards 
the  state,  towards  his  native  city,  and  towards  his  fellow- 
man  in  all  the  multitudinous  relationships,  spiritual  and 
temporal,  that  bind  the  children  of  the  Church  into 
solidarity. 


THE  CURRICULUM  403 

The  Church,  in  her  teaching,  prepares  man  for  a  life 
with  God  hereafter,  but  since  this  world  is  of  God's 
making  and  designed  by  Him  to  give  the  requisite  prepara- 
tion for  the  life  to  come,  the  Church  finds  it  set  down 
in  her  duty  to  teach  man  how  to  live  in  this  world  in 
accordance  with  the  eternal  laws  of  justice  and  mercy, 
since  it  is  only  in  this  way  that  he  can  be  properly  prepared 
for  the  life  to  come.  In  her  view,  the  best  preparation 
for  the  hereafter  demands  the  best  living  in  the  present. 
While  she  expounds  supernatural  truth  and  supernatural 
law,  her  first  concern  is  to  see  that  natural  law  is  under- 
stood and  obeyed  by  her  children,  for  she  has  ever  regarded 
the  natural  as  the  foundation  of  the  supernatural. 
;  With  such  a  view  of  life,  the  narrow  curriculum  of  the 
early  Prussian  Volksschule  and  of  the  New  England  Puri- 
tan School  is  wholly  incompatible.  While  our  Catholic 
schools  have,  at  various  times  since  the  Reformation,  been 
more  or  less  directly  affected  by  the  narrow  religious  or 
the  wholly  secular  character  of  the  common  schools  of 
this  country,  the  Church  has  always  striven  to  maintain 
her  own  ideals,  which  call  for  a  full  and  abundant  life 
of  the  imagination  and  of  the  heart  no  less  than  of  the 
intellect. 

From  the  earliest  Christian  times,  we  find  the  Church 
insisting  on  the  artistic  side  of  life.  She  aims  at  cul- 
tivating and  uplifting  the  feelings  and  emotions,  hence 
she  insists  upon  the  teaching  of  music  in  her  liturgy. 
Keenly  sensitive  to  the  value  of  dramatic  presentation, 
she  developed  her  liturgy  to  show  forth  the  constitution 
of  human  society,  the  relationship  of  various  classes  to 
each  other,  the  obedience,  reverence  and  cooperation 
which  each  one  owes  to  his  superior  and  which  all  owe  to 
God.  The  beauty  of  her  temples,  the  illumination  and 


404  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

decoration  of  her  altars,  the  tapestries  of  her  sanctuaries, 
the  artistic  and  symbolic  character  of  the  vestments  of 
her  ministers,  fostered  in  all  the  people  a  love  of  art  and 
warmed  into  glowing  life  the  artistic  genius  of  her  children. 

The  miracle  play  and  the  tournament  show  the  efflores- 
cence outside  the  sanctuary  of  the  spirit  of  her  teaching. 
Nor  did  the  Church's  care  for  things  of  art  and  literature 
lead  her  to  neglect  the  treasures  of  ancient  civilizations. 
She  preserved  the  classics  and  cherished  the  remnants 
of  pagan  art  which  survived  the  storms  of  the  migra- 
tions. Her  churchmen  were  leaders  in  the  revival 
of  pagan  letters  and  art  during  the  period  of  the  Renais- 
sance, and  in  spite  of  the  abuse  and  persecutions  which  she 
frequentlymet  with  at  the  hands  of  Protestants  in  later  days, 
because  of  her  love  for  art  and  letters,  she  has  never 
relinquished  her  claim  or  ceased  to  insist  that  it  is  her 
business  to  teach  religion  in  such  a  way  as  to  render  it  a 
vital  influence  in  every  department  of  life.  She  feels 
that  it  is  her  duty  to  teach  every  branch  in  the  cur- 
riculum since  nothing  can  be  understood  by  the  pupil  as 
it  is,  unless  it  is  understood  in  the  light  which  religion 
sheds  upon  it.  Without  God,  the  world  consists  of  a 
multitude  of  fragments,  and  where  God  and  religion  are 
omitted  from  the  curriculum,  nothing  else  that  the  cur- 
riculum contains  can  be  presented  to  the  pupil  as  it  is, 
since  it  cannot  be  presented  to  him  in  its  relation  to  God 
and  to  the  totality  of  created  existence.  It  is  not,  there- 
fore, for  the  sake  of  religion  alone  that  the  Church  insists 
that  religion  and  the  so-called  secular  branches  shall  not 
be  separated  in  her  schools. 

When  Horace  Mann  laid  the  foundations  of  a  state 
school  system  in  Massachusetts,  his  first  step  was  to 
exclude  the  teaching  of  religious  dogmas  from  the  cur- 


THE  CURRICULUM  405 

riculum.  The  disintegrating  principle  of  Protestantism 
had,  among  the  Puritans,  worked  itself  out  to  its  logical 
conclusion  in  a  multitude  of  disconnected  and  isolated 
schools  which  reached  the  lowest  depths  of  inefficiency, 
both  through  the  poverty  of  their  curricula  and  the 
inadequate  training  of  their  teachers.  It  would  appear, 
however,  that  Mann  and  the  other  educational  reformers 
of  the  time,  were  not  opposed  to  the  teaching  of  religion. 
They  seemed  to  realize  the  fact  that  religion  is  even  more 
necessary  for  the  public  welfare  than  the  other  subjects 
of  the  curriculum,  but  it  was  their  judgment,  and  the 
judgment  of  those  who  came  after  them,  that  religion 
could  be  taught  effectively  in  the  home  and  in  the  church, 
and  that  it  should  be  taught  in  these  institutions  rather  than 
hi  the  school.  They  seemed  to  have  no  realization  that 
the  banishment  of  religion  from  the  curriculum  would 
weaken  and  disintegrate  its  remaining  elements. 

The  Catholic  Church,  however,  did  not  concur  in  these 
judgments,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  she  set  to  work  imme- 
diately and  vigorously  to  build  up  a  school  system  of 
her  own  in  this  country.  In  doing  this,  the  effective  teach- 
ing of  religion  and  of  morality  was  her  primary  motive. 
She  did  not  believe  that  these  could  be  taught  effectively 
when  separated  from  the  teaching  of  secular  subjects  and 
hence  she  introduced  into  her  schools  those  secular 
branches  which  were  being  introduced  in  the  state  schools, 
that  her  children  might  not  suffer  in  any  way  in  their 
temporal  concerns  through  attendance  at  her  schools. 

But  it  is  not  in  accordance  with  her  purpose  that  these 
branches  be  taught  in  her  schools  in  the  same  manner 
in  which  they  are  taught  in  the  public  schools.  God  must 
be  restored  to  His  place  in  text-book  and  teacher's  instruc- 
tion, hence  both  text-books  and  methods  are  demanded 


406  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

for  use  hi  her  schools  which  could  not  be  used  consistently 
in  the  public  schools.  When  she  teaches  science  in  her 
schools,  it  must  be  in  the  light  of  higher  knowledge,  not 
that  there  is  to  be  a  conflict  in  the  findings  of  science  and 
the  teachings  of  revelation,  but,  on  the  contrary,  that  the 
findings  of  science  may  be  seen  in  their  true  perspective. 
When  she  teaches  history,  the  saints  must  be  retained  in 
their  true  relationship  to  human  events  and  human 
conduct.  She  does  not  and  cannot  teach  morality  as  a 
system  of  abstract  laws  and  regulations  or  as  a  maudlin 
sentimentality  devoid  of  rational  content  and  rational 
basis. 

The  relation  between  the  subject  matter  of  the  curricu- 
lum and  the  growing  conscious  life  of  the  pupil  has  been 
variously  conceived.  At  one  tune,  the  subject  matter 
seems  to  be  valued  chiefly  as  a  means  of  securing  mental 
gymnastic  exercise.  At  another  time,  it  is  looked  upon 
as  food  for  the  growing  conscious  life.  Again,  it  is  valued 
for  its  own  sake  or  as  an  instrument  of  power  and  is  simply 
to  be  committed  to  memory  in  order  to  furnish  an  objective 
rule  by  which  human  enterprise  or  human  conduct  may 
be  measured.  At  present,  under  the  influence  of  the 
psychological  movement,  there  is  a  return  to  the  concept 
of  this  relationship  as  manifested  in  the  Gospel. 

The  content  of  the  curriculum  is  related  to  the  develop- 
ing child-mind  in  a  direct  and  vital  way.  It  furnishes  food 
to  the  mind,  but  it  does  more  than  this.  It  also  includes 
definite  guiding  tendencies.  This  twofold  aspect  of  the 
relation  between  the  content  of  the  curriculum  and  the 
mind  of  the  pupil  may  be  aptly  illustrated  in  the  teach- 
ings of  our  Saviour:  "Not  by  bread  alone  doth  man  live, 
but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  from  the  mouth  of 
God;"  and  again,  when  He  explains  to  His  disciples  the 


THE  CURRICULUM  407 

meaning  of  the  parable  of  the  sower  who  went  out  to  sow 
his  seed,  He  tells  them  that  the  seed  is  the  Word  of  God. 

There  is  in  education  at  present  a  decided  swing  away 
irom  the  memorizing  process,  which  grew  out  of  the  view 
that  assigned  as  the  reason  for  any  item  in  the  curriculum 
its  value  for  adult  life.  It  is  commonly  held  today  that, 
whatever  value  an  item  may  have  in  adult  life,  the  first 
test  to  be  applied  in  determining  its  claim  to  a  place  in  the 
curriculum  concerns  its  relation  to  the  growing  mind  of 
the  child.  The  curriculum  should  provide  the  right 
kind  of  present  experience  through  which  growth  is  secured 
and  this  growth  will  in  due  time  show  its  value  in  adult 
life. 

"The  education  of  the  school  is  from  one  point  of  view 
plainly  a  process  of  development  resulting  from  experi- 
ence. As  school  experience  differs  in  no  essential  respect 
from  experience  gained  outside  the  school,  so  far  at 
least  as  its  effects  are  concerned,  the  entire  development 
of  a  child,  or  of  an  adult,  or  even  of  a  social  group  for  that 
matter,  may  be  regarded  as  an  educational  process,  as 
indeed  it  is.  This  process  is  both  natural  and  artificial; 
that  is  to  say,  it  is  the  result,  in  the  first  place,  of  the  opera- 
tion of  unconscious  natural  forces,  of  experiences  which, 
however  conscious  and  purposeful,  are  not  entered  upon 
with  any  thought  of  then*  educational  value;  and,  in  the 
second  place,  of  experiences  expressly  designed  to  exert 
an  educational  influence."1 

More  and  more  educators  are  coming  to  realize  that 
real  education  must  be  interpreted  in  terms  of  experience. 
The  business  of  the  curriculum,  therefore,  is  chiefly  to 
supply  to  the  children  the  right  kind  of  experience.  The 
children  may  not  be  able  to  select  profitable  experiences; 

1 1.  W.  Howerth.  Educational  Reritw,  January.  1817.  p.  01. 


408  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

the  teacher  and  the  curriculum  must  select  for  them  during 
the  sheltered  days  of  their  school  life.  This  aspect  of  the 
problem  was  also  frequently  emphasized  in  our  Lord's 
teaching.  "  By  their  fruits  you  shall  know  them  " — "  Be- 
cuse  thou  hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things  I  will  place 
thee  over  many  things,"  all  pointed  to  a  fact  of  supreme 
importance  which  our  educators  are  just  beginning  to 
realize.  Education  is  not  a  mere  knowing  or  remember- 
ing; it  is  preeminently  a  matter  of  doing. 

In  commenting  upon  the  curriculum  and  school  prac- 
tices that  have  survived  in  the  state  schools  in  spite  of 
the  advance  of  pedagogical  science,  Professor  Dewey  says : 
"The  physical  equipment  and  arrangements  of  the  average 
schoolroom  are  hostile  to  the  existence  of  real  situations  of 
experience.     What  is  there  similar  to  the  conditions  of 
every-day  life  which  will  generate  difficulties?     Almost 
everything  testifies  to  the  great  premium  put  upon  listen- 
ing, reading,  and  the  reproduction  of  what  is  told  and  read. 
It  is  hardly  possible  to  overstate  the  contrast  between 
such  conditions  and  the  situations  of  active  contact  with 
things  and  persons  in  the  home,  on  the  playground,  in 
fulfilling  of  ordinary  responsibilities  of  life.     Much  of  it 
is  not  even  comparable  with  the  questions  which  may  arise 
in  the  mind  of  a  boy  or  girl  in  conversing  with  others,  or  in 
reading  books  outside  of  the  school.    No  one  has  ever 
explained  why  children  are  so  full  of  questions  outside  of 
the  school  (so  that  they  pester  grown-up  persons  if  they 
get  any  encouragement),  and  the  conspicuous  absence  of 
display  of  curiosity  about  the  subject  matter  of  school 
lessons.     Reflection  on  this  striking  contrast  will  throw 
light  upon  the  question  of  how  far  customary  school 
conditions  supply  a  context  of  experience  in  which  prob- 
lems naturally  suggest  themselves.    No  amount  of  im- 


THE  CURRICULUM  409 

provement  in  the  personal  technique  of  the  instructor  will 
wholly  remedy  this  state  of  things.  There  must  be  more 
actual  material,  more  stuff,  more  appliances,  and  more 
opportunities  for  doing  things,  before  the  gap  can  be 
overcome.  And  where  children  are  engaged  in  doing 
things  and  in  discussing  what  arises  hi  the  course  of  their 
doing,  it  is  found,  even  with  comparatively  indifferent 
modes  of  instruction,  that  children's  inquiries  are  spon- 
taneous and  numerous,  and  the  proposals  of  solution 
advanced,  varied,  and  ingenious."1 

The  religion  which  the  Church  insists  on  being  taught 
in  her  schools  she  also  insists  shall  be  practiced  in  the 
school,  in  devotional  exercises,  in  preparation  for  the 
worthy  reception  of  the  Sacraments,  in  acts  of  penance 
and  mortification,  in  obedience  and  loving  service  to 
parents  and  teachers.  Her  religion  is  not  a  promulga- 
tion of  laws  to  govern  adult  life  alone;  it  has  just  as  vital 
and  just  as  direct  a  bearing  upon  the  conduct  of  the  child, 
and  his  sense  of  responsibility  must  be  developed  in 
relation  to  these  obligations  throughout  the  entire  educa- 
tive process.  Nor,  in  her  teaching,  does  she  make  the 
mistake  of  confining  herself  to  abstract  formulations. 
She  constantly  places  before  the  minds  of  her  children 
the  lives  of  the  saintly  men  and  women  who  best  illus- 
trate the  virtues  of  social  life  which  she  is  striving  to 
inculcate. 

Foerster,  in  common  with  many  other  modern  writers, 
points  out  the  value  of  the  Church's  practice  in  this 
respect:  "From  this  point  of  view  the  saints  are  of  im- 
perishable importance  in  the  world  of  education.  They 
illuminate  and  demonstrate  the  teaching  of  Christ  in 
many  and  varied  directions,  at  the  same  time  Unking  it 

1  Dewey,  Democracy  and  Education,  New  York,  1916,fp.  18Z-3. 


410  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

up  with  human  life.  In  order  to  avoid  every  misunder- 
standing, I  must  make  it  clear  that  I  do  not  ask  Protestant 
ministers  or  teachers  simply  to  take  over  Catholic  doc- 
trines, customs,  or  institutions.  They  cannot,  however, 
afford  to  neglect  the  psychology  and  pedagogy  which  lie 
behind  the  Catholic  system;  these  must  be  thoroughly 
understood  and  valued,  in  order  that  the  broader  view  of 
life  which  thus  results  should  give  rise  to  something  of  a 
corresponding  nature  within  the  frame-work  of  the 
Protestant  tradition.  With  regard  to  the  question  of 
asceticism;  I  should  not  expect  Protestants  to  undertake 
the  worship1  of  the  saints,  but  they  might  well  make  the 
heroic  lives  and  achievements  of  those  men  and  women, 
who  dedicated  themselves  to  the  Church,  fruitful  for 
Christian  worship  and  for  the  development  of  will  and 
character.  Indeed  we  are  driven  in  this  direction  by 
the  simplest  fundamental  truth  of  all  moral  education — 
the  decisive  importance  of  example.  'Thou  shalt'  is  indeed 
great  and  important:  but  not  less  important  is  the  'Thou 
canst/  which  is  forced  upon  us  by  a  mighty  and  consistent 
example.  It  is  indeed  true  that  we  need  in  the  first  place 
the  perfect  example  of  Christ  Himself,  in  which  the  higher 
is  revealed  in  its  entire  purity;  but  in  another  sense  we 
need  also  the  encouragement  of  personalities  more  closely 
related  to  our  weakness  and  error,  and  who  have  neverthe- 
less attained  to  inner  freedom  in  so  impressive  a  manner. 
...  A  modern  philosopher  (I  refer  to  H.  Von  Stein, 
whose  too  early  death  was  so  deplorable)  has  drawn 
attention  in  his  later  works  to  the  imperishable  significance 
of  the  lives  of  the  saints.  Attracted  to  their  study  through 
Schopenhauer,  he  discovered  behind  every  negation  their 

*Foerster  here  makes  the  common  Protestant  mistake:  Catholic» 
rererence  the  saints,  imitate  their  example,  and  ask  their  intercession 
with  God,  but  they  do  not  worship  them. 


THE  CURRICULUM  411 

mighty  positive  element,  their  gift  to  the  world  and  to 
those  who  live  and  struggle  in  it:  'In  the  highest  and 
noblest,'  he  says,  'our  experience  is  unfortunately  con- 
fined to  what  is  limited  and  inadequate.  .  .  .  They, 
however,  experienced  in  themselves  the  absolute,  and  life 
is  nothing  when  one  has  not  in  some  fashion  or  another 
acquired  this  experience.'"1 

The  views  here  put  forth  by  Foerster  are  shared  by 
many  other  leading  thinkers  of  our  day.  The  late  Professor 
Paulsen  said  of  the  volume  from  which  we  have  just 
quoted:  "In  an  age  like  ours,  it  is  an  inspiration  to  read 
such  a  book  as  that  which  Dr.  Foerster  has  just  given  us: 
.  .  .  the  author  has  had  the  courage  boldly  to  set  up 
the  traditional  standards  of  conduct  and  morality  in  the 
face  of  all  that  is  hollow,  perverted,  and  would  be  exalted 
in  modern  life."2 

The  two  principles  which  must  guide  us  in  modifying 
the  curriculum  of  our  schools  are:  first,  the  material 
presented  must  be  such  as  may  be  readily  assimilated  by 
the  pupils  for  whom  it  is  intended;  it  must  meet  their 
present  growing  needs  and  carry  them  upward  to  a  higher 
view.  Secondly,  the  material  must  be  of  such  a  nature 
that  when  followed  out  to  its  final  logical  implications,  it 
will  present  a  conscious  life  in  accordance  with  the  model 
which  we  accept  as  the  governing  type  of  human  life. 

In  the  elementary  school,  particularly  during  the  first 
six  years  of  the  course,  nothing  should  be  admitted  which 
is  so  final  and  definite  in  form  as  to  render  it  impossible 
for  the  child  to  transform  it  and  lift  it  into  the  growing 
structures  of  his  constantly  developing  mind.  The  build- 
ing and  development  of  the  pupil  is  the  only  legitimate 
aim  during  this  period.  Experience  and  definite  achieve- 

1  Foerster,  Marriage  and  the  Sex  Problem.  New  York,  1912,  p.  ISSff. 
*0p.cit.,v. 


412  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

ment  during  these  early  years  have  value  only  in  so  far 
as  they  secure  development.  In  the  latter  portion  of  the 
educational  process,  however,  the  curriculum  must  be  so 
shaped  as  to  include  the  instrumental  knowledge  required 
for  the  work  in  life  that  awaits  the  individual  on  leaving 
school.  Moreover,  the  curricula  of  elementary  and 
secondary  schools  should  be  so  adjusted  to  each  other  as 
to  avoid  any  break  in  the  mental  development  of  the 
pupils  who  may  pass  from  the  one  school  to  the  other. 
This  applies,  of  course  to  the  transition  from  the  high 
school  to  the  college,  university,  professional  or  technical 
school  The  details  of  the  programme  of  studies  may  vary, 
but  the  fundamental  principles  governing  the  selection  of 
the  material  cannot,  though  our  comprehension  of  them 
may  increase  or  diminish.  The  curriculum  in  the  Catholic 
school,  while  designed  to  meet  all  these  requirements,  must 
be  so  arranged  as  to  shape  life  into  conformity  with 
Christian  standards  of  conduct  and,  at  the  same  time,  to 
impart  efficiency  in  earthly  pursuits. 

Finally,  the  fact  should  not  be  lost  sight  of  that  Catholics 
are  interested  in  the  curriculum  of  our  public  schools  and 
in  everything  else  pertaining  to  them,  for  Catholics,  in  as 
full  a  measure  as  any  others  among  their  fellow-citizens, 
support  the  state  schools  and  they  share  an  equal  measure 
in  the  responsibility  of  governing  them.  Catholics  are 
not  behind  others  in  contributing  to  the  educational 
progress  of  the  state  schools,  but  they  cannot  take  over 
the  curriculum  or  methods  or  ideals  of  the  state  schools 
into  Catholic  schools,  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  ulti- 
mate aim  of  Catholic  education  is  higher  than  that  of  the 
state  schools.  It  includes  within  its  scope  all  the  legiti- 
mate aims  of  the  state  school,  while  the  state  school  does 
not,  and  cannot,  include  the  ultimate  aim  of  Catholic 
education. 


CHAPTER   XXHI 
THE  TEACHER  AND  HIS  TRAINING 

The  teacher  is  the  central  fact  in  the  school  and  by  far 
the  most  important  factor  in  its  work.  Properly  con- 
structed buildings  and  good  equipment  in  furniture, 
blackboards,  charts  and  library  count  for  much,  but  it 
requires  the  teacher  to  put  these  agencies  into  effective 
operation.  This  is  true  of  all  schools  but  it  is  preeminently 
true  of  the  elementary  school  where  the  personality  of  the 
teacher  is  an  all-important  factor  in  shaping  the  character 
and  developing  the  fundamental  virtues  of  the  children. 
The  teacher  should  have  an  easy  mastery  of  the  subject 
matter  of  the  curriculum,  and,  if  he  is  to  accomplish  his 
work  economically,  he  must  have  a  theoretical  and  prac- 
tical knowledge  of  educational  science. 

The  most  elaborate  equipment  will  necessarily  fail  to 
accomplish  results  where  the  teacher  is  lacking  in  the 
academic  and  professional  training  required  for  his  task 
and,  even  if  he  possessed  these  requirements,  should  he 
be  found  wanting  in  the  fundamental  social  virtues,  the 
school  that  relies  upon  his  services  cannot  give  an  effective 
training  for  citizenship  or  for  membership  in  the  Church. 
These  truths  are  universally  recognized  today  and  strenu- 
ous efforts  are  being  made  on  all  sides  to  procure  suitable 
teachers.  The  method  employed,  however,  by  the  state 
system  differs  radically  from  that  followed  by  the  Church. 
Writers  on  the  schools  of  colonial  New  England  present  a 
rather  sad  picture  of  the  teacher  in  the  Puritan  schools  of 
those  days  and  of  the  results  achieved.  Writing  of  the 
Boston  schools  in  the  year  1800,  Parker  says:  "While  its 
schools  were  not  as  good  as  those  of  some  of  the  neighbor- 

413 


414  PHILOSOPHY  OF   EDUCATION 

ing  towns,  they  were  much  better  than  the  great  majority 
of  the  village  and  rural  schools  which  were  kept  by  temporary 
teachers,  generally  by  a  man  in  winter  for  about  two 
months,  and  by  a  woman  in  summer  for  two  months. 
The  Boston  teachers,  as  a  rule,  were  engaged  permanently 
in  teaching.    The  'double-headed'  system  which  existed 
in  Boston  was  an  interesting  survival  in  separate  buildings 
of  the  medieval  and  Reformation  types  of  schools.   .    .    . 
When   it  was   proposed  to   abolish   the   double-headed 
system  early  in  the  nineteenth  century  'the  reading  masters 
were  found  as  incompetent  to  teach  penmanship  as  the 
writing   masters   had   always    been    to   teach    anything 
else.'  "*    A  little  further  on,  the  same  writer  makes  the 
statement   that   "two-thirds  of  the  children's  time  was 
wasted  by  poor  equipment  and  poor  methods,"  adding: 
"The  traditional  methods  of  instruction  were  so  wasteful 
that  children  would  attend  school  for  years  and  get  only 
a  smattering  of  reading  and  writing."*    The  individual 
method  was  still  in  use.    The  children  were  taught  as 
individuals,  not  as  groups.     "Very  little  of  the  teacher's 
activity  was  actual  instruction;  it  was  simply  hearing 
recitations.     Giving  of  information   by   the   teacher  or 
inductive  discussions  with  groups  of  children  were  almost 
unheard  of.     In  arithmetic  the  memorizing  of  number 
combinations  and  of  scores  of  rules  to  be  followed  mechan- 
ically in  computation  was  the  characteristic  method."3 
It  should  be  remembered  that  this  description  applied 
to  the  state  schools  of  New  England  down  to  the  days  of 
Horace  Mann  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
while  the  Christian  Brothers  and  other  Catholic  teaching 
communities  had  been  following  the  advanced  method 

1  Parker,  Hist.  Mod.  Elem.  Educ.,  Boston,  1912,  p.  86. 
1  Ibid.,  p.  91. 
*  Ibid.,  p.  90. 


THE  TEACHER  AND  HIS  TRAINING  415 

described  in  a  preceding  chapter  for  nearly  two  cen- 
turies. Before  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
St.  John  Baptist  de  La  Salle  had  established  his  Institute 
to  give  academic  and  professional  training  to  the  teachers 
in  the  elementary  schools  of  France.  He  had  introduced 
the  "simultaneous  method"  and  the  graded  system  and, 
after  giving  to  the  future  teachers  a  training  in  theory, 
gave  them  a  training  in  practice-teaching  under  competent 
masters  before  sending  them  out  to  take  up  the  work  of 
elementary  education. 

The  difficulties  of  obtaining  for  the  state  schools  a  supply 
of  teachers  with  the  right  native  qualifications  and  proper 
academic  and  professional  training  have  not  yet  ceased  to 
exist  in  our  midst,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  following 
testimony  furnished  by  so  competent  an  authority  as 
Ellwood  Cubberly.  Speaking  of  the  earlier  methods  of 
the  selection  of  teachers,  he  says:  "The  passing  of  a 
simple  written  examination,  given  by  an  examining 
committee  or  by  the  county  superintendent,  and  the 
issuance  of  a  teacher's  certificate,  answered  all  demands 
on  the  scholastic  and  professional  side.  On  the  personal 
side,  which  was  the  important  one,  the  members  of  the 
teachers'  committee  of  the  school  board,  as  well  as  the 
other  board  members,  were  visited  by  the  different 
applicants  and  importuned  by  their  friends;  the  personality 
and  special  needs  of  the  applicant  were  given  due  con- 
sideration; and,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  the  personal 
friendships,  church  relationships,  and  party  affiliation 
of  male  relatives  all  played  their  part  in  determining  who 
were  to  be  selected  by  the  board.  The  teachers'  com- 
mittee finally  made  its  selections,  formally  reported  the 
list  to  the  full  board  for  approval,  and  the  board  either 
adopted,  or  modified  and  then  adopted,  the  report.  The 


416  PHILOSLPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

schools  being  regarded  in  large  part  as  a  local  undertaking, 
and  the  theory  that  anyone  could  teach  who  could  govern 
being  the  chief  pedagogical  belief  of  the  time,  it  followed 
that  outsiders  were  seldom  selected,  and  that  the  bright 
and  attractive  graduate  of  the  last  class  in  the  local  school 
system,  the  daughter  of  the  estimable  citizen,  the  young 
lady  who  needed  to  help  her  widowed  mother,  or  the 
widow  or  the  deserted  wife  of  a  former  local  resident, 
were  the  natural  persons  selected  to  share  the  public 
bounty  and  to  teach  the  children  of  the  community  in  the 
schools.  Where  the  schools  had  been  taken  possession 
of  by  the  local  politicians,  some  local  boss,  instead,  had 
to  be  seen,  and  he  dictated  all  the  appointments  made  by 
the  board.  This  earlier  method  has  persisted  in  whole 
or  in  part  in  many  of  our  American  cities,  but  it  is  now  being 
rapidly  replaced  by  one  more  likely  to  result  in  the  selection 
of  a  better  type  of  teachers  for  the  schools."1 

In  the  new  method  here  referred  to,  the  superintendent, 
who  should  be  an  educational  expert,  is  charged  with  the 
chief  responsibility  in  the  selection  of  teachers.  This,  it  is 
hoped,  will  result  in  securing  better  teachers.  School 
boards,  it  is  said,  have  too  little  knowledge  of  pedagogy  and 
are  subject  to  too  much  local  pressure.  "Ultimately  the 
children  in  the  schools  and  the  community  as  a  whole  pay 
the  price  of  the  school  board's  attempt  to  exercise  such  a 
professional  function."  When  the  board,  instead  of  the 
superintendent,  selects  the  teachers,  "the  local  candidate 
has  the  inside  track  under  such  a  plan,  can  bring  plenty 
of  local  pressure  to  bear,  and  usually  secures  the  position. 
This  tends  to  keep  the  home  schools  for  the  home  girls, 
when  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  home  girls  are  not  the  equal 
of  girls  equally  well  prepared  from  the  outside,  unless 

1  Cubberley,  Pub.  Sch.  Admin..  Boston,  1916,  p.  199  3. 


THE  TEACHER  AND  HIS  TRAINING  417 

they  have  gone  away  from  home  for  their  training.  It  is 
an  important  part  of  the  training  and  life  experience  of  a 
young  person  to  go  away  from  home,  to  get  new  ideas 
from  others  and  to  be  influenced  in  new  ways,  and  to 
come  in  contact  with  new  people  and  gain  new  points  of 
view.  In  no  line  of  professional  work  is  this  more  im- 
portant than  in  teaching."1 

The  superintendent's  power  in  the  selecting  of  teachers 
varies  at  present  in  different  communities.  "In  some  the 
salaries  paid  will  be  so  low  that  trained  teachers  from 
the  outside  cannot  often  be  attracted  to  the  service,  and 
the  home  girls  accordingly  come  to  expect  the  vacant  posi- 
tions as  soon  as  they  have  finished  the  high  school  course. 
In  other  communities  the  salaries  may  be  high  enough, 
but  the  community  ideals  for  public  education  are  low, 
and  the  board  of  education  has  never  attempted  to  change 
conditions  by  setting  standards  which  ought  to  have  been 
enforced.  In  still  other  communities  good  salaries  and 
good  educational  and  professional  standards,  strictly 
enforced,  make  the  work  of  selecting  new  teachers  an 
easy  matter."2 

Passing  from  an  account  of  the  actual  conditions  to  a 
statement  of  the  ideal  which  it  is  possible  to  attain,  the 
same  author  lays  down  seven  guiding  principles  of  which 
the  following  are  the  first  two:  "(l)  Schools  have  been 
ordered  established  by  the  state  for  the  education  of  the 
children  of  the  state,  and  each  child  in  the  community  is 
entitled  to  as  good  an  education  and  as  good  teachers  as 
the  community  can  afford.  (2)  Only  the  best  education 
within  the  means  of  the  community  should  be  provided, 
and  this  can  be  the  case  only  when  the  teachers  and 

lLoe.  eit. 
*Loe.cit. 


418  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

supervisors  employed  are  the  best  it  is  possible  to  obtain 
with  the  money  at  hand." 

In  both  of  these  principles,  the  attracting  force  is  recog- 
nized as  the  salary,  and  in  the  principles  that  follow, 
which  deal  with  the  attempt  to  free  the  schools  from  local 
influence,  the  same  objective  is  evident.  The  fifth  prin- 
ciple states:  "(5)  Teachers  within  the  system  must  keep 
themselves  professionally  alive  and  render  good  com- 
munity service  as  a  condition  to  the  retention  of  their 
places."  Thus,  each  of  the  seven  principles  proposed 
to  govern  the  selection  and  retention  of  teachers  relies 
for  its  effectiveness  on  the  financial  motive. 

Mr.  Pritchard,  former  president  of  the  Carnegie 
Foundation,  in  a  public  address  delivered  in  North  Caro- 
lina some  years  ago,  formulated  this  situation  when  he 
declared  that,  outside  of  the  schools  conducted  by  the 
religious  communities  of  the  Catholic  Church,  teaching 
was  strictly  an  economic  function. 

The  state  school  systems,  in  spite  of  the  authority  and 
the  funds  at  their  disposal,  have  absolutely  failed  to  call 
into  existence  a  force  of  professional  teachers  whose 
motives  in  teaching  are  lifted  above  personal  financial 
gain.  Nor  need  this  surprise  anyone.  The  schools  are 
limited  hi  then-  scope  to  the  teaching  of  secular  branches 
and  in  their  aims  to  temporal  and  economic  success. 
The  teachers  are  obliged  to  look  out  for  their  individual 
support  and  the  support  of  those  depending  upon  them, 
and,  like  other  human  beings,  they  must  make  provision 
for  a  "rainy  day,"  for  sickness  and  old  age.  All  the  forces 
playing  upon  them  lift  the  financial  motive  into  the  central 
place.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  however,  that  altruistic  and 
social  motives  may  be  added  and  stimulated  as  far  as 
possible  but  in  such  a  system  they  must  remain  subordi- 


THE  TEACHER  AND  HIS  TRAINING  419 

nate  to  the  main  issue  which  is  measured  in  terms  of 
dollars  and  cents. 

The  individual  well-being  of  the  teacher  as  an  aim  is, 
however,  a  disintegrating  force  and  increases  the  difficulty 
of  those  who  labor  to  produce  a  system  of  schools  that 
shall  operate  to  produce  disinterested  citizens  and  a 
socialized  community. 

In  the  matter  of  the  academic  and  professional  standing 
of  the  teacher,  the  state  school  system  is  less  hampered 
and,  since  the  days  of  Horace  Mann,  there  has  been 
steady  progress  in  the  establishment  of  normal  schools 
and  training  schools  for  teachers.  These  institutions  are 
free  and  a  one  or  two  years'  course  hi  normal  school  is  now 
required  in  most  instances  as  the  condition  for  entering 
the  teaching  force,  particularly  of  our  city  systems,  the 
normal  school  course  to  be  preceded  by  a  successful  course 
in  a  standard  four-year  high  school.  At  present,  however, 
a  considerable  portion  of  the  teaching  force  of  our  public 
schools  have  had  much  less  training  than  this. 

The  economic  situation  in  this  country  during  the  last 
few  decades  has  operated  to  prevent  intelligent  and 
ambitious  men  from  entering  the  teaching  profession. 
From  92  to  96  per  cent  of  the  teachers  in  the  elementary 
and  secondary  schools  in  the  more  thickly  populated 
portions  of  the  country  are  women.  This  circumstance 
is  an  important  factor  in  preventing  the  development  of  a 
professional  spirit  in  our  teaching  force.  A  man  might 
be  presumed  to  take  up  teaching  as  a  life  work,  but  the 
great  majority  of  girls  who  take  up  the  work  of  teaching 
do  so  with  the  hope  that  it  may  end  after  a  brief  period  of 
service.  They  naturally  look  forward  to  marriage,  which, 
in  most  instances,  disqualifies  them  for  the  work  of  teach- 
ing. Statistics  compiled  by  the  Bureau  of  Education  a 


420  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

few  years  ago  show  that  the  average  teaching  life  of  a 
woman  in  the  public  schools  of  the  United  States  is  less 
than  five  years.  If  the  undetermined  percentage  of 
women  who  remain  permanently  in  the  service  be  sub- 
tracted, it  will  be  seen  that  the  great  majority  of  our 
women  teachers  remain  scarcely  two  years  in  service 
and  during  this  time  they  are  probably  deeply  occupied 
with  concerns  outside  the  schoolroom. 

Through  efficient  academic  and  normal  school  training, 
the  state  system  may  hope  to  obtain  a  body  of  teachers 
competent  to  aid  in  the  attainment  of  several  of  the 
aims  which  the  state  systems  should  secure.  Among  these 
may  be  numbered  physical  education,  properly  balanced 
development,  and  economic  efficiency.  Such  a  force  may 
conduct  efficient  drills  along  various  lines.  They  may 
help  to  sharpen  the  wits  of  their  pupils  and  to  supply 
them  with  information  and  aid  them  in  the  attainment 
of  skill  but  other  educational  aims  are  more  difficult  of 
attainment  with  a  body  of  non-professional  teachers. 
Prescinding  for  the  present  from  the  ultimate  aim  of 
Christian  education,  which  the  state  lays  no  claim  to 
achieve,  the  state  school  system,  besides  attaining  the 
three  ends  mentioned  above,  should  aim  at  securing 
individual  culture  and  social  efficiency,  and  it  should 
educate  for  worthy  citizenship. 

The  realization  of  these  latter  three  aims  calls  for 
something  besides  knowledge  and  skill  in  the  teacher. 
The  teacher's  motives,  his  personality,  and  the  obvious 
purposes  of  his  life  have  more  to  do  with  awakening  in  the 
pupils  these  moral  qualities  than  have  drills  or  definite 
courses  which  deal  directly  with  the  cognitive  faculties. 
However  well,  or  even  necessary,  it  may  be  that  the  school 
should  minister  to  the  development  of  skill  and  the  culti- 


THE  TEACHER  AND  HIS  TRAINING  421 

ration  of  the  intellectual  faculties,  whatever  views  may 
be  entertained  by  different  schools  of  philosophers  con- 
cerning the  value  of  the  various  educational  aims,  there 
is  practical  unanimity  that  under  a  form  of  government 
such  as  ours  education  for  worthy  citizenship  must 
maintain  its  place  in  every  school  that  undertakes  the 
training  of  the  future  citizens  of  the  republic.  Our 
public  school  system  has  been  created  by  the  state  and  is 
being  maintained  by  our  tax  payers  for  the  attainment  of 
this  aim.  The  masses  of  our  people  are  not  born  to  be 
subjects  governed  by  a  ruling  class.  The  perpetuity  of 
our  free  institutions  and  the  permanence  of  our  govern- 
ment demand  that  our  children,  after  leaving  school, 
shall  take  their  places  in  a  body  of  citizens  who  are 
capable  of  enacting  just  laws,  of  administering  them  wisely 
and  of  obeying  them  faithfully.  Ours  is  a  government  of 
the  people,  for  the  people  and  by  the  people. 

The  state  supports  its  schools  to  the  end  that  the 
children  may  grow  up  into  self-supporting,  self-respecting 
and  efficient  members  of  society,  into  men  and  women 
who,  instead  of  becoming  a  public  burden  will  contribute 
their  share  to  the  public  welfare,  into  men  and  women, 
who,  instead  of  demanding  armed  force  to  prevent  them 
from  indulging  in  acts  of  dishonesty,  will  promote  public 
morals  by  the  integrity  of  their  own  lives,  into  patriotic 
citizens  who  will  be  ever  solicitous  for  the  public  welfare 
and  who  will  always  place  the  public  good  above  all  private 
gain.  In  a  word,  the  ultimate  aim  of  state  education  is, 
and  must  always  be,  to  educate  for  citizenship.  As  far 
as  the  state  is  concerned,  all  other  educational  aims  are 
either  iridifferentor  secondary,  but  she  must  insist  upon  edu- 
cation for  citizenship  not  only  in  her  own  schools,  but  in  all 
other  schools  which  undertake  to  train  her  future  citizens. 


422  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

From  the  considerations  here  set  forth,  it  is  evident 
that  the  teacher  is  the  main  factor  in  the  attainment  of 
the  state's  aim  in  education.  The  realization  of  this  aim 
demands  the  cultivation  in  the  pupils  of  the  fundamental 
virtues  and  qualities  set  forth  in  a  previous  chapter,1 
among  which  disinterestedness  occupies  a  prominent 
place.  Nevertheless,  the  state  is  obliged  to  use  self- 
interest  as  the  main  motive  in  attracting  her  teachers 
and  keeping  them  in  her  service.  The  Church,  on  the 
contrary,  requires  of  each  individual  who  seeks  a  place 
in  any  one  of  her  teaching  communities  that  he  first 
relinquish  all  ownership  of  property  and  all  claim  to 
monetary  compensation  for  his  future  labors.  By  a  vow 
of  poverty,  he  frees  himself  once  and  for  all  from  the  control 
of  the  financial  motive  and  is  enabled  to  devote  his  life 
and  his  services  unreservedly  to  the  children  who  may 
come  under  his  care  without  thought  of  personal  gain  or 
benefit  in  return.  The  force  of  this  example,  acting  on  the 
children  day  by  day,  is  more  potent  in  its  socializing  influ- 
ence and  in  the  production  of  disinterested  citizenship 
than  any  formal  teaching  of  morality  could  be.  In  this 
respect  our  religious  teachers  imitate,  as  far  as  human 
frailty  will  permit,  the  example  of  the  Master  who  spoke 
of  Himself  as  the  Good  Shepherd  who  laid  down  His  life 
for  His  flock  and  who  said  to  His  disciples:  "My  little 
children,  love  one  another  as  I  also  have  loved  you." 

The  Church  is  not  content  with  selecting  for  her  teaching 
force  men  and  women  whose  social  consciousness  is  so 
highly  developed  that  they  joyfully  renounce  all  earthly 
possessions  in  order  to  devote  their  energies  throughout 
the  rest  of  then*  lives  to  the  service  of  others  irrespective 
of  race  or  creed  or  countrv.  In  the  novitiate  the  candidate 


1  See  above,  p.  244. 


THE  TEACHER  AND  HIS  TRAINING  423 

is  not  only  given  time  to  make  sure  that  his  call  to  the 
religious  Hie  is  permanent,  but  he  is  exercised  in  the 
practice  of  the  six  great  fundamental  virtues  for  two  or 
more  years  before  he  is  allowed  to  take  his  place  in  the 
active  teaching  force.  Moreover,  this  training  follows 
him  through  life,  as  he  is  constantly  subjected  to  the 
rule  of  the  community  and  constantly  called  upon  to 
practice  the  virtues  in  question. 

In  the  Catholic  school  system,  the  supply  of  teachers  is 
secured  through  the  operation  of  principles  which  eliminate 
all  but  the  chosen  souls  who  possess  in  a  high  degree 
the  qualities  discussed  above  as  pertaining  to  good 
citizenship.  Not  content  with  these  qualities  as  they 
appear  in  the  young  men  and  young  women  of  the  world, 
she  carefully  trains  them  with  a  view  to  the  further 
development  of  these  qualities  and  takes  every  means  to 
preserve  and  continue  the  development  of  these  same 
virtues  throughout  the  lives  of  her  teachers.  There  is  no 
other  society  in  the  world  that  operates  so  effectively  to 
produce  in  its  membership  the  great  fundamental  virtues 
of  human  faith  and  hope  and  brotherly  love,  of  disinter- 
estedness, self-control  and  loyalty  to  law  as  the  religious 
community  in  the  Catholic  Church.  The  candidate  not 
only  gives  up  earthly  possessions,  but  is  called  upon  to 
renounce  the  high  privilege  of  parentage  and  home  and 
independence.  He  must  obey  not  only  the  command- 
ments and  the  fundamental  laws,  but  the  Gospel  counsels 
of  perfection.  His  love  must  not  only  be  purified  of 
self,  but  of  family  and  nationality,  it  must  be  broadened 
until  it  embraces  all  mankind,  strengthened  until  it 
supplies  sufficient  motive  for  any  sacrifice,  and  lifted  up 
from  earth  until  it  is  transfigured  by  the  love  of  God. 
The  Catholic  school  supplied  with  teachers  of  this  char- 


424  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

acter  should  prove  incalculably  more  efficient  than  the 
state  school  in  promoting  worthy  citizenship,  nevertheless, 
the  Church  has  never  accepted  education  for  citizenship 
as  the  goal  of  the  educational  process  and  she  never  can 
accept  it  as  the  ultimate  aim  of  the  education  given  to  her 
children.  The  Church  recognizes  in  each  child  a  future 
citizen,  but  she  also  recognizes  in  him  a  child  of  heaven 
who  must  grow  to  maturity  and  live  out  a  brief  span  with 
his  fellows  in  the  industrial,  social  and  civic  environments 
of  his  day  and  country. 

The  state,  through  her  educational  system,  seeks  to 
transmit  to  the  rising  generation  the  institutions  and 
spiritual  treasures  built  up  by  the  present  and  past 
generations.  All  advance  of  society  is  to  be  looked  for 
in  the  activities  of  the  adult  population.  In  the  Catholic 
system,  on  the  contrary,  the  deliberate  purpose  is  to  lift 
adult  society  to  a  higher  level  through  the  Catholic  school. 
This  purpose  she  seeks  to  accomplish  through  her  teaching 
communities.  The  secular  teacher  brings  with  him  into 
the  school,  daily,  the  atmosphere  of  the  world  in  which  he 
lives;  the  women  who  form  such  an  overwhelming  majority 
of  the  public  school  teachers  are  an  integral  j  rt  of  the 
social  and  economic  world  of  their  day  and  they  share 
its  spirit  and  its  progress.  The  teacher,  however,  is 
seldom  in  the  forefront  of  social  or  economic  progress; 
her  professional  duties  withdraw  her  during  her  working 
hours  from  the  actual  strife,  hence  she  cannot  transmit 
the  latest  achievements  of  society,  the  things  that  are 
actually  growing  where  the  struggle  is  intense,  and  no 
other  source  of  inspiration  and  guidance  is  provided  for 
her.  The  religious  teacher,  on  the  contrary,  is  withdrawn 
from  the  world  and  lifted  above  its  strife  and  turmoil. 
Through  daily  religious  exercises  and  the  practice  of  the 


THE  TEACHER  AND  HIS  TRAINING  425 

rules  of  the  community  and  the  virtues  enjoined,  she 
brings  the  redeeming  influence  of  Jesus  Christ  and  of  His 
saving  teachings  to  bear  upon  the  children  who  come 
under  her  influence,  thus  implanting  high  ideals  and  thus 
shaping  their  lives  to  standards  that  far  outrun  the  highest 
achievements  of  the  world. 

The  Catholic  Church,  both  through  her  organic 
teaching  and  through  her  schools,  has  ever  con- 
tinued her  work  of  redeeming  society.  She  is  not, 
and  she  cannot  be,  content  to  transmit  the  achieve- 
ments of  one  generation  to  another.  She  has  a  treasure 
to  impart  that  is  not  produced  by  men,  a  civilizing  and 
socializing  influence  to  wield  which  has  its  source  in 
Jesus  Christ.  The  Church  finds  that  her  educational 
aims  are  best  achieved  through  the  organization  of  her 
teachers  into  religious  communities  which  are  governed 
by  the  counsels  of  perfection,  and  it  is  hard  to  see  how  she 
could  have  achieved  her  results  in  any  other  way.  The 
world,  left  to  itself,  loses  the  spirit  of  sacrifice  and  abnega- 
tion. It  condemns  humility  and  erects  individual  aggres- 
siveness into  its  ideal.  How  could  we  expect  from  such  a 
source  the  building  up  of  our  Catholic  school  system  in 
this  country,  which  in  a  few  generations  has  grown  to 
such  magnitude?  Where  did  our  Catholic  people  get 
the  spirit  of  generous  self-sacrifice  which  led  them,  after 
being  compelled  by  law  to  support  state  schools,  to  build 
up  out  of  their  own  scanty  means  the  vast  system  of 
schools  that,  at  present,  continue  the  work  of  the  Church's 
teaching  in  our  midst?  From  what  other  source  might 
we  expect  such  a  spirit  of  devotion  to  high  ideals  as  is 
manifested  by  the  30,000  men  and  the  80,000  women  who, 
as  members  of  the  parochial  clergy  or  of  religious  com- 
munities, devote  their  lives  to  the  public  welfare  and  to 


426  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

\ 

the    salvation    of    souls    without    thought    of    personal 
remuneration? 

The  influence  on  the  children  exerted  by  the  high  ideals 
of  the  religious  life  of  their  teachers  is  far-reaching  and 
many-sided.  This  is  commonly  understood  by  Catholics, 
but  non-Catholics  frequently  fail  to  understand  either 
the  ideal  or  its  effect.  Foerster  is  a  striking  exception 
to  this  rule.  In  a  chapter  entitled  "The  Indispensability 
of  the  Ascetic  Ideal"  in  his  volume  on  "Marriage  and  the 
Sex  Problem,"  he  evinces  a  deep  penetration  and  a 
sympathetic  insight  into  the  attitude  of  Catholics  and  of 
the  Church  in  this  all-important  matter.  The  chapter 
should  be  given  the  widest  possible  circulation  among  our 
educators  as  an  antidote  for  their  misconceptions  of  the 
religious  life  of  our  Catholic  teachers.  We  add  here  a  few 
striking  passages  which  bear  directly  on  the  theme  in 
hand: 

"To  secure  the  mastery  of  man's  higher  self  over  the  whole  world 
of  animal  desire  is  a  task,  however,  which  demands  a  more  systematic 
development  of  will  power  and  the  cultivation  of  a  deeper  faith  in 
the  spiritual  destiny  of  humanity  than  are  to  be  found  in  the  super- 
ficial intellectualistic  civilization  of  today.  To  achieve  such  a 
result  it  will  be  necessary  not  only  to  have  recourse  to  new  methods 
and  new  ideals,  but  to  make  sure  that  we  do  not  allow  what  is 
valuable  and  in  any  way  worthy  of  imitation,  in  the  old,  to  be 
forgotten.  The  ascetic  principle,  in  particular,  is  today  in  danger 
of  being  undervalued. 

"Asceticism  should  be  regarded,  not  as  a  negation  of  nature,  nor 
as  an  attempt  to  extirpate  natural  forces,  but  as  practice  in  the  art  of 
telf-discipline.  Its  object  should  be  to  show  humanity  what  the 
human  will  is  capable  of  performing,  to  serve  as  an  encouraging 
example  of  the  conquest  of  the  spirit  over  the  animal  self.  The 
contempt  which  has  been  poured  upon  the  idea  of  asceticism  in 
recent  times  has  contributed  more  than  anything  eLe  towards 
effeminacy.  Nothing  could  be  more  effective  in  bringing  humanity 


THE  TEACHER  AND  HIS  TRAINING  427 

back  to  the  best  traditions  of  manhood  than  a  respect  for  the  spiritual 
strength  and  conquest  which  is  symbolized  in  ascetic  lives. 

"By  the  ascetic  ideal  is  meant  that  view  of  life  which  does  not 
simply  regard  self -conquest  as  a  stage  in  self-development,  but  which 
assigns  a  definite  and  essential  function  in  the  evolution  of  humanity 
to  men  and  women  who  shall  demonstrate,  in  one  sphere  or  another, 
the  possibility  of  living  a  life  of  continual  and  complete  abnegation — 
not  in  order  to  make  a  more  natural  life  appear  contemptible,  but 
with  the  express  purpose  of  enriching  life  and  preserving  it  from 
degeneration  by  means  of  heroic  examples  of  spiritual  power. 
Properly  to  understand  the  significance  of  asceticism,  it  should  be 
remembered  that  natural  life  does  not  flourish  unless  the  spirit 
retains  the  upper  hand;  and  since  we  are  surrounded  for  the  most 
part  by  striking  examples  of  lives  in  which  the  spirit  plays  anything 
but  a  leading  part,  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  desirable  that  living 
and  striking  examples  of  men  and  women  who  have  fully  freed 
themselves  from  the  distraction  of  the  world  and  the  domination  of 
natural  desires  should  be  continually  before  our  eyes."1 

Professor  Foerster  is  here  dealing  with  the  problem  as  it 
appears  in  adult  society.  Its  force,  when  considered  in 
the  school,  is  even  more  striking,  for  the  younger  the  child 
is,  the  more  profoundly  is  he  influenced  by  example,  and 
childhood  and  adolescence  in  particular  stand  in  gravest 
need  of  the  constant  presence  of  examples  of  self -conquest 
to  the  end  that  they  may  gain  a  rational  control  of  the 
tide  of  human  passion  that  is  rising  within  them. 

The  alarming  spread  of  sex  immorality  and  sex  disease 
among  public  school  children  has,  in  recent  years,  pro- 
duced a  strong  and  widespread  movement  which  seeks  to 
remove  this  evil  by  the  teaching  of  sex  hygiene  in  the 
schools.  However,  where  the  remedy  has  been  tried,  it 
has  usually  been  found  ineffective  in  preventing  the  evils 
and,  on  the  contrary,  a  prolific  source  of  disseminating 

»0p.  eit.,  pp.  127-9. 


428  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

many  of  the  worst  practices  which  it  was  sought  to 
control.  This  moral  breakdown  is  not  confined  to  the 
United  States.  Foerster,  at  the  time  of  writing  this 
work,  was  a  member  of  the  teaching  staff  at  the  University 
of  Zurich,  and  he  is  speaking  more  of  the  conditions  of 
Europe  than  of  this  country  when  he  says : 

"Ignorance  of  the  awful  dangers  latent  in  our  weak  nature  is  very 
commonly  to  be  met  with  in  epochs  still  powerfully  influenced  by 
great  traditions  of  moral  discipline.  Those  born  in  such  periods 
are  apt  to  be  lacking  in  personal  acquaintance  with  the  darker  side 
of  human  nature,  owing  to  the  very  state  of  discipline  into  which 
their  fellow  citizens  have  been  brought.  Hence  they  fail  to  realize 
what  a  laborious  taming  of  passion  has  preceded  the  comparative 
security  they  find  around  them.  Time  will  soon  give  us  a  demon- 
stration on  a  large  scale  of  what  men  can  be  like  when  undisciplined. 

"In  the  sphere  of  sex  a  rapid  disintegration  of  character  is  already 
going  on.  The  effect  of  the  increasing  laxity  in  this  direction  will 
make  itself  felt  in  other  directions.  A  disrespect  for  definite  moral 
standards  in  this  region  will  tend  to  initiate  a  spirit  of  license  in 
every  other  department  of  social  and  moral  life.  It  is  astounding 
with  what  rapidity  all  moral  convictions  are  today  breaking  down 
in  the  minds  of  vast  masses  of  the  people.  This  would  not  occur  if 
the  deepest  foundations  of  these  convictions  had  not  been  long  under- 
mined. The  suggestive  force  of  tradition  continues  to  be  operative 
in  an  age  which  has  largely  abandoned  the  positive  belief  lying 
behind  the  tradition,  and  this  deceives  us  as  to  the  real  extent  of  the 
disintegration.  The  first  vigorous  push  shows  us  how  far  the 
process  of  undermining  has  gone"  (p.  129). 

This  was  written  a  few  years  before  the  outbreak  of  the 
European  war  and  time  has  already  cast  its  light  on  the 
prophecy  which  the  passage  contains.  The  theme  of 
interest  here,  however,  is  the  remedy  which  he  suggests 
for  the  evils  which  he  so  clearly  sees : 

"Without  most  people  being  conscious  of  the  fact,  one  of  the 
main  foundation  stones  of  our  traditional  moral  culture  has  been  the 
constant  presence  in  our  midst  of  great  personalities  illustrating  in 


THE  TEACHER  AND  HIS  TRAINING  429 

their  own  lives  the  highest  possible  degree  of  spiritual  freedom,  the 
complete  conquest  of  the  spirit  over  the  world  and  the  senses.  The 
presence  in  society  of  such  spiritually  dedicated  characters  is  a 
source  of  psychic  inspiration  for  the  whole  community,  and  a  con- 
stant and  courageous  protest  against  the  smug  Philistinism  of  the 
men  of  the  world.  The  true  building  up  of  moral  ideals  and  the 
chief  stimulus  towards  their  fulfilment  come  from  the  embodiment 
of  the  spiritual  life  in  its  most  perfect  form  in  heroic  human  life, 
and  not  from  any  kind  of  merely  intellectual  demonstration 

"A  belief  in  the  spiritual  destiny  of  man — no  mere  dream,  but  a 
belief  confirmed  and  strengthened  by  the  lives  of  great  spiritual 
geniuses — is  the  first  necessity  in  arousing  and  developing  a  spiritual 
conscience  in  the  human  race,  a  sense  of  the  bounden  duty  of  resisting 
the  lower  self.  Unless  this  feeling  has  been  brought  into  being, 
morality  itself  has  no  deep  soil  in  which  to  take  root.  There  could 
be  no  greater  aid  to  its  creation  than  the  spectacle  of  men  who  can 
pursue  spiritual  things  with  a  more  powerful  passion  than  that  with 
which  men  of  the  world  follow  after  gold,  fame,  and  women. 

"It  is  an  eternal  fact  that  humanity  continually  scorns  and  rejects 
the  high,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  dimly  realizes  that  it  cannot 
master  its  own  life  without  the  illumination  and  power  coming  from 
thence.  Therefore  the  demonstration  of  a  complete  overcoming 
of  the  world  is  in  no  sense  an  attack  upon  life — rather  is  it  a  contribu- 
tion towards  life.  In  the  face  of  the  immense  suggestive  power  of 
wealth,  of  ambition,  and  of  every  kind  of  sensuous  temptation,  human- 
ity cannot  dispense  with  the  counteracting  suggestion  of  a  life  which 
has  made  itself  absolutely  independent  of  all  these  things" .(p.  130). 

After  pointing  out  the  great  value  of  the  examples  left 
us  by  the  saints  in  our  struggle  with  human  passions 
and  human  temptations,  Professor  Foerster  returns  to 
the  r61e  played  by  the  ascetic  lives  of  our  religious 
communities . 

"What  has  just  been  said  with  regard  to  the  ascetic  view  of  life  in 
general  must  apply  also  to  our  valuation  of  the  religious  orders.  In 
the  lower  Franciscan  Church  in  Assisi,  we  see  a  representation  of  the 
threefold  sacrifice,  poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience,  with  which  Chri»- 


430  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

tian  asceticism  opposes  the  strongest  passions  of  humanity.  These 
three  sacrifices  give  those  living  in  the  world  and  struggling  with  the 
desire  for  material  gain,  with  sensuality  and  with  personal  ambition, 
a  continual  reminder  of  their  spiritual  origin  and  a  continual  assist- 
ance against  the  over  valuation  of  external  things.  The  earnestness 
and  reality  of  the  spiritual  world  is  strengthened,  in  an  altogether 
indispensable  fashion,  by  the  fact  that  there  are  and  have  been  men 
who  voluntarily  denied  themselves  all  these  things,  devoting  them- 
selves entirely  to  spiritual  contemplation  or  Christian  charity.  And  in 
face  of  the  extraordinary  tangibility  of  outward  claims  and  tempta- 
tions, what  could  be  more  necessary  than  such  a  strengthening? 
In  the  case  of  the  energetic  races  of  the  Western  World,  occupied  as 
they  are  so  largely  with  outward  and  politico-economic  activities, 
such  an  opposition — on  the  part  of  a  whole  class — to  the  over  valua- 
tion of  material  things  is  of  the  most  imperative  importance — not 
least  for  the  health  and  true  productivity  of  our  worldly  civilization 
itself"  (p.  139). 

A  cloud  of  witnesses  might  be  summoned  who  would 
bear  testimony  to  the  uplifting  effect  of  the  ascetic  lives 
of  our  religious  teachers.  In  this  fact  we  find  a  large 
measure  of  the  strength  of  that  Catholic  influence  which 
keeps  our  people  from  the  divorce  court,  which  preserves 
the  purity  of  our  family  life  and  the  religious  faith  and 
ideals  of  our  people.  Catholics  have  made  great  sacrifices 
in  this  country  to  upbuild  and  support  a  Catholic  school 
system,  but  the  returns  made  have  been  great  beyond 
all  proportion  to  the  cost. 

It  is  true  that  our  young  people  here  and  there  suffer 
some  weakening  of  the  moral  fiber  either  through  attend- 
ance at  non-Catholic  schools  or  through  association  with 
daldren  who,  in  the  schools  they  attend,  are  lacking  in 
moral  reinforcement  which  it  is  the  blessed  privilege  of 
so  many  of  our  children  to  receive  from  our  religious 
teachers. 

The  religious  novitiate  specifically  aims  at  the  develop- 


THE  TEACHER  AND  HIS  TRAINING  431 

ment  of  the  ascetic  character  as  understood  by  Foerster, 
but  before  the  candidate  is  permitted  to  enter  the  school 
as  a  teacher,  he  must  receive  a  normal  training  which  is 
usually  imparted  during  the  second  and  subsequent  years 
of  the  novitiate.  Each  community,  in  the  absence  of 
any  other  standard,  fixes  for  itself  the  academic  qualifica- 
tions of  its  membership,  and  it  also  fixes  the  standard  of 
professional  attainment,  but  it  lies  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Ordinary  to  fix  standards  for  those  religious  teachers 
who  undertake  the  work  of  teaching  in  the  elementary 
schools  of  the  diocese.  A  special  body  of  examiners 
is  frequently  appointed  to  examine  and  license  the 
teachers.  In  certain  of  our  dioceses,  at  present,  no  teacher 
is  allowed  to  take  up  work  in  the  parochial  schools  unless 
she  has  had  a  satisfactory  course  of  four  years  in  a  standard 
high  school  and,  in  addition  thereto,  a  prescribed  course 
in  the  professional  subjects.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this 
standard  will  soon  be  universal  hi  this  country. 

Professor  Cubberley,  in  the  passages  previously  cited, 
pointed  out  the  disadvantage  of  having  local  girls  teach 
the  local  schools  and  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  this 
practice  is  still  widely  prevalent.  This  evil  does  not 
exist  in  the  Catholic  school  system.  The  young  women 
are  taken  away  from  home  for  two  or  more  years  of  tram- 
ing,  usually  at  a  distance  from  home  surroundings  and  in 
an  unaccustomed  social  environment,  before  they  are 
allowed  to  take  up  the  work  of  teaching,  and  then  it  rarely 
happens  that  they  are  permitted  to  teach  in  the  home 
school. 

The  teaching  communities  would  gladly  give  their 
candidates  a  much  more  thorough  training  for  the  work 
of  teaching,  along  both  academic  and  professional  lines, 
were  it  possible  for  them  to  do  so.  Their  progress  in  this 


432  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION 

matter  is,  and  has  been,  retarded  by  two  main  factors — 
the  want  of  sufficient  funds  and  the  want  of  sufficient 
members  to  do  the  work  that  is  required  of  them.  In  this 
connection  it  should  also  be  added  that  in  spite  of  the  best 
intention  to  the  contrary,  lay  teachers  must  be  employed 
in  many  of  our  Catholic  schools  until  such  time  as  a 
sufficient  number  of  religious  can  be  obtained  for  the 
work. 


INDEX 


Academic  and  professional 

subj  ;cts 22 

Accretion,  growth  by 100 

Acquired        characteristics, 

transmission  of 152 

Activities,  value  of  child's. .   189 
Adjusting   form    to    child's 

intelligence 204 

Adjustment  of  internal   to 

external  relations.  .70,  72 

education  as 61 

in  education 66,  67 

in  New  Testament 68 

meaning  of 66 

to  law 146 

Adjustments,  suppression  of 

obsolete 165 

Adolescence  and  authority.   184 

and  the  cross 29,  30 

and  religion 28,  29 

Adult  life,  guidance  of 304 

Aesthetic  elements    of    cul- 
ture    250 

inheritance 88 

Aggregation,  growth  by. ...    100 
Aim  of  Christian  education.    161 

Aims,  educational 64 

Aims  of  State  and  Catholic 

education 32 

Alchemy  and  chemistry 134 

Alcuin,  educational  work  of .   336 
Alfred  the  Great  and  Eng- 
lish education 336 

Ancestral  forms,  suppression 

of 121 

Ancestral    functions,     sup- 
pression of 83,  84 

Animal  and  human  instinct.    161 

Animal  instincts 146 

Animal  instincts,  limitation 

of 174 

Animal  instincts,  rigidity  of     62 

Animals,  training  of 150 

Animals,  transmission  of  ex- 
perience     151 


Ants,  instincts  of :  .  .  .   222 

Apprentice,  position  of 236 

Apprenticeship  system 222 

failure  of 226 

Arrested  development 130 

Art  instruction 240 

Art,  nature,  revelation,  lan- 
guage as  mental  food 

supply 45,  46 

Asceticism,  value  of. . .  .410,  426 

Assimilation,  mental 108,  116 

and  culture 248 

and  feeling 309 

Astrology  and  astronomy.  .  134 
Astronomy  and  astrology. .  134 

Atavism 81 

Athenian  education 330 

Authority  and  God 186 

and  habits 185 

divine  in  the  Church 307 

necessity  of 182 

to  evidence 174 

transfer  of 80,  136 

Baldwin,  Mark,  on  organic 
and  mental  develop- 
ment   196 

Balances  between  physical 
and  mental  develop- 
ment  197,  199 

in  development 194 

Baptism,  teaching  force  of .  .   310 

Barnard,  Henry 343,  349 

contributions    to    educa- 
tion    362 

Basil,  St 335, 

Bean,  development  of  the. .     49 

Bean-stalk,  parable  of 49 

Becoming,  the  process  of. . .  53 
Benedict,  St.,  teaching  of.  .  338 
Benedictines  and  the  dignity 

of  labor 222 

Biogenesis 140 

Biological  concept  of  educa- 
tion   

misconception 89 

433 


434 


INDEX 


Biology  and  education.  .80,  162 

Bobbitt,  Dr 36 

and  Eugenics 25,  26,  161 

and    the    aim    of  educa- 
tion       26 

Brain  and  intelligence 196 

localization  in  the 195 

Bread   and   butter   aim   in 

education 214,  219 

Brethren    of   the    Common 

Life 373 

Brothers    of   the    Christian 

Schools 375 

Butler,  Murray 38 

Catechetical  method 109 

schools 334 

Catecumenal  schools 334 

Cathedral  schools 335 

Catholic   and   state  educa- 
tion, aim  of 32 

and  public  schools  com- 
pared   346 

education,  aim  of 24 

educational  association...   393 
Catholics    and    the    public 

school 412 

Catholic  school,  curricula  of       7 
Catholic  schools  and  citizen- 
ship    396 

and  public  schools 387 

and  secular  branches 334 

and  state  schools 8 

and  progress 424 

and  social  redemption. ...   425 

diversity  of 872 

growth  of 887 

obligatory 888 

plasticity  of 371 

professional  teachers  in ..   423 

standardization  of 7,  392 

support  of 7 

unification  of 391 

uniformity  in 7 

Catholic  School  System. . . .   371 
and  state  school  system. .   395 

development  of 843 

integration  of 7 

magnitude  of 7 

unity  of 395 


Catholic  Sisters  College. . .  .   393 
Catholic     Teachers'     Insti- 
tutes    393 

teachers,  selection  of 422 

University,  and  affiliation 

of  high  schools 394 

department  of    educa- 
tion    893 

first  rector  of 392 

foundation  of 391 

scope  of 391 

Summer  School 394 

Cats  and  red  clover 268 

Cave-dwellers,  feast  of  the.     92 
Centralizing     tendency     in 

New  England  schools  362 
Cerebral  and  mental  devel- 
opment    196 

cortex  and  consciousness.   196 

functions 196 

Change,   man's  attitude  to- 
wards       56 

Changes  of  emphasis  in  cur- 
riculum  46,  47 

Character  and  teaching  effi- 
ciency    263 

Characteristics,      transmis- 
sion of  acquired 152 

Charlemagne,      educational 

work  of 33G 

Chemistry  and  alchemy  .  .  .    134 

Child  and  experience 151 

labor 223 

Children  dependent  on  par- 
ents    366 

Child's  tendencies,  conquer- 
ing of 190 

Child    welfare,  a  basic  mo- 
tive    288 

Chinese  education 75,  324 

and  instinct 76 

rigidity  of 147 

Christian  and  pagan  ideals.   170 

and  state  schools 335 

Brothers,  distribution  of.    381 

government  of 379 

numbers  of 381 

organization  of 377 

schools  of 380 

training  of 378 


INDEX 


435 


Christian  character,  founda- 
tion   of 270 

ducat  ion,  aim  of 46 

plasticity  of 1 17 

ultimate  aim  of. ...  101,  171 
'  Christianity  and  the  indivi- 
dual  242 

Christian  schools,  origin  of.   333 

spread  of 330 

Christian  socialists  and  edu- 
cation    259 

Chrysostom,  St.  John 835 

Church,  an  educative  agency  298 

and  asceticism 403 

and  education 348 

and  educational  aims. ...   871 
and  educational  progress.   290 
and  Greco-Roman  educa- 
tion    329 

and  home  education 290 

and  international  coopera- 
tion    209 

and  Jewish  education. . . .  329 

and  secular  teaching 402 

and  school 371 

and      the      training      of 

teachers 871 

and  the  vernacular  Bible.       8 
control  of  education.  .351,  372 

development  in 08 

divine  authority  in  the. ..   307 
educational  achievements 

of 08,  298 

hygienic  teaching  in 183 

infallibility  of 303 

Macaulay  on 300 

organic  teaching  of 310 

plasticity  of 08,  299 

Church's  method  of  teach- 
ing    805 

teaching       and       funda- 
mentals    303 

teaching  of  adults 804 

Church,  source  of  plasticity 

in 300 

teaching  charter  of 298 

transmits    social   inherit- 
ance      44 

universality    of    teaching 

mission. .  .  299 


Citizen  and  the  law 271 

^six  qualities  of 204 

Citizenship  and  self -control.   272 

and  self-sacrifice 271 

education  for 04,  05 

Civic  virtue  and  efficiency. .   204 
Civilization  and  plasticity..     79 

Classics  and  culture 230 

value  of 04 

Clay  modelling 240 

Cognitive  elements  of  cul- 
ture    249 

College,  denominational, ...    04, 
09,  75 

Colonial  schools 338 

Community  school  systems.   884 
Competition,  evils  of .  .  .  199,  209 
Compulsory  elementary  ed- 
ucation    351 

Conceit  and  culture 251,  252 

Conduct,  norm  of  human.  .   231 
Confessional,    educative 

value  of 311 

Confirmation,  educative 

value  of 312 

Confucius 824 

Conscious  and  unconscious 

vital  phenomena. .  . .   141 

life,  laws  of 144 

Consciousness     and     nerve 

tension 197 

and  the  cerebral  cortex ..    190 

Continuation  schools 220 

Conversion  and  adolescence, 

28,  29 

in  mental  development. . .     28 
Cooperation,     elements     of 

progress  in 270 

necessity  of 221 

of  home  and  school . . .  180,  294 
Copernicus    and    inductive 

science 184 

Council   of   Baltimore   and 

parochial  schools. . . .   888 

of  Cincinnati 880 

Creation     and     the     child 

mind 400 

doctrine  of 142 

Cross,  story  of  th«,  in  litera-     * 
tur« *8.  29 


436 


INDEX 


Cross,  the,  as  the  symbol  of 

adolescence 29,  30 

Culture,  aesthetic  elements 

of 250 

and  conceit 251,  252 

and  elementary  education  256 

and  materialism 218 

and  mental  assimilation. .  248 
and  specialization. . .  .244,  217 
and  the  educative  process  25 1 

and  the  emotions 250 

cognitive  elements  of.  ...  24 9 
education  for 242 

Cultured   man,  social  atti- 
tude of 252 

Culture  Epoch  Theory. .  .77,  78, 
80,  317 

and  Christianity 169 

and  recapitulation 86 

influence  of 87,  88 

refutation  of 164 

Culture,  how  produced 255 

nature  of 246 

various  meanings  of 253 

without  the  classics 256 

Curriculum,  and  educative 

principles 402 

and  mediaeval  schools.  .  .  401 
and  mental  development.  411 

as  mental  food 406 

as  vital  germ 407 

change  of  emphasis  in. .  .46,  47 

changes  in 397 

enriching  the 400 

function  of 244 

in    early    New    England 

schools 398 

modification  of  principles 

in 411 

of     Catholic     and     state 

schools 45 

of  Roman  school 333 

the 397 

Cyclical  change 50 

Deer,  evolution  of 83 

Defectives,  care  of 295 

De  Groote 373 

Democracy  and   education, 

330,  331 


Denominational  college,  64, 69, 75 

Development  and  growth.  .   130 

and  mental  growth. .  .200.  201 

arrested 130 

arrested  by  growth 201 

balances  in. .  194, 197,  199,  203 
Development,  cerebral  and 

mental 196 

conception  of fil 

embryonic      and      larval 

forms 120 

meaning  of 99 

mental 117 

mental,  and  education ...   214 

mental  and  organic.  .122,  125, 

127.  129 

organic 119 

organic  and  mental 192 

period  of 208 

physical,   an  educational 

aim 181 

physical  and  mental 195 

physiological    and    mor- 
phological    128 

principles  governing 

thought 134 

types  of 118 

Deventer 375 

Didactic  to  organic  methods  115 
Diocesan  school  system ....   384 

organization  of 389 

Diocesan     superintendents, 

training  of 389 

Diocesan    system    insuffic- 
ient    390 

necessity  of 889 

Discipline,  formal 406 

Discouragement,  danger  of.   200 
Disinterestedness,     cultiva- 
tion of 422 

education  for 270 

in  the  teacher 422 

Dogmatic  basis,  need  of. ...   803 
Dominion  and  knowledge.  .    138 

obedience 138 

Doctrines,  transfer  of 82 

Dopp,   Katharine 91 

Dual  school  system 343 

Dullness,  cause  of 197 

Dynamic,  from  the  static  to     48 


INDEX 


437 


Economic  efficiency,  educa- 
tion for 213 

necessity  for 216 

Economic  motive,  elevation 

of 232,  234 

edification,  obligation  of.   817 

Educating  for  motherhood.   290 
leaders 1 261 

Education,  a  means  of  per- 
petuating social  in- 
stitutions  31,  32 

and  biology 80,  162 

and  Christian  socialists.  .   259 

and  experience 407 

and  freedom 124 

and  inhibition 155 

and  instinct 61,  75 

and  mental  development.  213 

and  physical  heredity 161 

and  plasticity 78 

and  race  solidarity 325 

and  Reformation 349 

and  social  heredity 38 

and  state  control 258 

and  the  Christian  ideal.  .   180 

and  the  Church 348 

as  adjustment 61 

biological  concept  of 39 

bread-and-butter-aim  in, 

214,  219 

by  the  monks 335 

centralization  in  England  354 
centralization  in  France. .  354 
centralized  control  of. ...  869 

Church  control  of 351 

compulsory  elementary, 

53,  227 

conflicting  aims  in 230 

elementary,  aim  of 131 

elementary  and  culture.  .  258 
evolutionary  school  in ...  365 

familale  League  de  la 294 

for  citizenship 64,  65, 

258,  363,  421 

for  complete  living 243. 

for  culture 242 

for  disinterestedness 270 

for  economic  efficiency. . .  213 

for  home  building 240 

for  industrial  efficiency...  221 


Education  for  leisure. .   228,  239 

formal Q\ 

for  social  efficiency 228 

for  the  good  of  the  whole 

people 261 

for  the  state 364 

general  and  the  state 263 

m  a  democracy 256 

individualistic  aim  in 868 

in  the  art  of  living 239 

need  of.. 150 

of  defectives 295 

of  the  classes 238 

of  the  whole  man 806 

of  women 336 

pagan  trend  in 171 

physical 161 

present  trend  in 285 

religious  aim  in 859 

secondary  aims  in 180 

social  significance  of 864 

state  control  of 849 

ultimate  aim  of  Christian  161 

vocational 64,  210 

Educational  aims 64 

and  Christianity 167 

and  physical  inheritance.    165 

changes  in 863 

determination  of 168 

elimination  of  undesirable  167 

erroneous 162 

old  and  new 146 

Educational   philosophy, 

dangers  of  current  . .       7 
Educative  principles  in  the 

liturgy 808 

process  and  culture 254 

and    mental    develop- 
ment    117 

culmination  of 214 

factors  in 59 

reign  of  law  in 145 

Efficiency  and  civic  virtue..  264 
Elementary  and  secondary 

schools,  art iculat iun  uf  412 

education  aim  of 181 

and  culture 258 

school  and  sensory  train- 
ing    287 

Embryo  and  parasite 2U 


438 


INDEX 


Embryology,  teaching  of . . .    162 
Embryonic  development 

and  larval  forms ....    120 

structures 83 

Emotion  and  culture 250 

Emotions,  cultivation  of .  .  .   309 
England,    centralization    of 

education  in 354 

Environment,  adjustment  to  277 

and  growth 104,  105 

and  mental  growth. . .  105,  107 
modification  of,  66,  67,  72,  73 

Eskimo  Stories 96 

Ethical    and    biological    in 

man 163 

rise  of  the 164 

Eugenics,  aim  of 365 

and  educational  aims.  ...      26 

Bobbitton 161 

Euken,  Rudolph,  views  of. .   302 
Evolution,    history    of    the 

concept 52 

value  of  the  concept 51 

Example,  influence  of 155 

Experience  and  animal  in- 
stinct    149 

and  inhibition 154 

and  instinct 149 

and  the  child 151 

as  teacher 152 

dangers  of 154 

function  of 146 

function  of  personal,  153,  154 
Transmission   of,    in  ani- 
mals     151 

Experiences,  selection  of .  . .    156 
Extreme  Unction,  educative 

value  of 314 

Faith,  function  of 264 

Familiale,  League  de  1'edu- 

cation 294 

Family   and  character   for- 
mation    281 

in  relation  to  church  and 

state 280 

life,  preparation  for 297 

life,  purity  of 430 

nature  of 278 

Father,  the,  and  education..   291 


Feeling  and  mental  assimi- 
lation   309 

Feminization  of  schools. . .  .  419 
Fiske,  John,  on  the  neces- 
sity of  education ....  181 

Foerster 409 

approach  to  the  Church. .  801 

teaching  of 426 

Food,  mental 109 

supply,    four    sources    of 

mental 43,  46 

Foreshortening  of  develop- 
ment, history  of.  ...  85 

of  race  history 121 

Formal  education 61 

Fourier,  St.  Peter 378 

France,  centralization  of 

education  in 354 

Franciscan    schools   in   the 

U.  S 338 

Frederick    the    Great,    and 

education 350 

Freedom  and  education. . .  .  125 

knowledge 123 

Free  schools,  establishment 

of 336.  337 

Galileo 134 

Generation,  spontaneous...   139 
Genetic  philosophy  of  edu- 
cation       28 

psychology  and  the  cur- 
riculum    401 

psychology,  teachings  of.   162 
German  education,  influence 

of 368 

Germinal  thought 51 

truths 309 

God  and  authority 186 

and  nature 137 

God.loveof.guidingprinciple  232 

needed  in  the  world 46 

God's  intellect  and  natural 

law 137 

will  and  natural  forces. . .    137 

Grade  system 415 

Growth  and  development.  .   130 

and  environment 104,  105 

an  impediment  to  devel- 
opment    202 


INDEX 


439 


Growth  arrested  by  develop- 
ment   201 

by  accretion 100 

by  aggregation 101 

by  intussusception. .  .101,  111 

four  types  of 100 

meaning  of  term 99 

mental 101 

ratios  of Ill,  114 

source  of  energy  in 104 

types,  likenesses  and  dif- 
ference in 102,  103 

Gymnasium,   humanistic 

character  of 353 

Habit,  a  modification  of  in- 
stinct    148 

and  instinct 78,  176 

and  plasticity 78 

Habits  and  authority 185 

hygienic,  necessity  of. ...   183 

necesity  of 148 

Hall,  G.  Stanley 28,  39,  64 

and  biological  education.   162 
on    the    Culture    Epoch 

Theory 88 

Hazing,  college 322 

Health,  preservation  of.  ...   181 

Hebrew  education 826 

Hellenic  education 329 

Heredity,      physical      and 

social 27,  35,  37 

physical,  downward  tend- 
ency of 27 

physical,  limits  of 35 

social  and  educational.. ..     38 
social  and  individual  ex- 
perience     153 

social  and  physical 181 

social,  necessity  of 182 

Heroic  examples,  value  of.  .   429 
History,  new  interest  in...     53 
of  education,  need  of.  ...      60 
Hobbes  on  the  function  of 

the  state 258 

Holy    Communion,    educa- 
tive value  of 311 

Holy      Orders,      educative 

value  of 313 

Home,  a  social  and  economic 

unit. .  .  .283 


Home    and  industrial  effi- 
ciency     222 

and  religion 323 

and  school 343 

cooperation  of 186,  294 

building,  education  for. ..  240 
church  and  school  inter- 
dependence     367 

education,  cause  of  failure 

in 296 

scope  of 324 

hygienic  teaching  in 183 

life,  weakening  of 286 

making 294 

necessity  of 288 

new,  character  of 284 

supplanted  by  state 366 

the,  an  educative  agency.  277 

the  chief  school 292 

the   fundamental   educa- 
tive institution 281 

the  primitive  school 220 

to  school,  transition  from .   188 

Homogenesis 140 

Hope,  function  of 265 

Hughes,  Archbishop 344 

Human  and  animal  instinct.   161 

instincts 146 

atrophied 151 

incomplete 62 

validity  of 178 

Husband  and  wife,  equality 

of 280 

functions  of 279,  290 

Huxley,  Thomas 49 

and  human  development.   163 

on  breaks  in  nature 142 

Hygiene,  authority  in   the 

teaching  of 184 

in  the  Church 188 

home 183 

school 184 

school 191 

Hygienic   habits,    necessity 

of 183 

Ideal,  Christian 169 

Ideals  and  heredity 25 

and    the    Philosophy    of 

Education 04 

pagan  and  Chrutian 170 


440 


INDEX 


Imitation  and  infancy 129 

conscious 318 

duty  of 318 

educative  function  of ....   315 

law  of  direction 316 

law  of  intensity 316 

laws  governing 315 

Independence,  acquisition  of  175 
the  attainment  of 213 

India,  religion  of 133 

Individual  and  Christianity  242 

and  group 221 

and  the  state 281 

claim  vs.  social  claim .  .  .  39,  41 
experience      and      social 

heredity 153 

life,  controlled  by  race  ex- 
perience     186 

Industrial  and  Social   His- 
tory Series 91 

and    the    Culture    Epoch 

Theory 01 

Industrial     education     and 

English  Parliament. .  225 
and  national  prosperity. .  2i5 
in  England 223 

Industrial  efficiency  and  the 

home 222 

and  the  school 222 

education  for 221 

Industrial  home 235 

as  school 282 

Industrial   training,   princi- 
ples governing 224 

Infancy  and  imitation 129 

Infancy,  meaning  of 128 

Initiation  ceremonies,  edu- 
cative value  of 222 

Inheritance,    physical    and 

educational  aims ....  165 
social 147 

Inhibition  and  education. . .   155 
and  experience 154 

Instinct  and  conduct 72 

and  education 61,  75 

and  habit 78,  176 

freein"  from. .  .    124 


Instinct,    human   and    ani- 
mal      161 

modified  by  experience .  . .   149 

validity  of 173 

Instinctive  dependence,  the 

five-fold 178 

Instincts  and  intelligence. ..    172 

the  Lord's  Prayer 179 

human  and  animal 146 

modifications  of 61,  176 

suppression  of 316 

transformation  of 179 

undeveloped 35 

utilization  of 819 

Institutional  inheritance.  .  .      88 
Intelligence  and  instincts. ..   172 

and  revelation 171 

Interest  center  of  in  educa- 
tion      48 

effectiveness  of 236 

vs.  voluntary  attention.  .    192 
International   Congress  for 

family  education. ...   295 
Intussusception,  growth  by, 

101,  211 

Jefferson  on  education 358 

Jesuits'  schools 375 

Keane,  Archbishop 392 

Kepler 134 

Kerschensteiner,    on    voca- 
tional schools 369 

Knowledge  and  dominion.  .  138 

freedom 123 

moral  qualities 364 

instrumental 412 

Labor,  dignity  of,  and  Bene- 
dictines of 222 

Labor  -  saving     machinery, 

effect  of 226 

Labor,  value  of 228 

Laboratory  methods 244 

Language,  development  of .  53, 54 
nature,    art,    religion,    as 

mental  food  supply,  43,  46 


INDEX 


441 


Larval  forms  and  embryonic 

development 120 

phases 86 

La  Salle,  St.  John  Baptist 

de 376 

Latin  and  Catholic  schools.  372 

Law,  intrinsic  character  of. .  134 

letter  of  the,  discarded. . .  208 

natural  and  supernatural .  172 

obedience  to 182 

of  love 169 

reign  of,   man'a  recogni- 
tion of  the 132 

Leaders,  education  of 261 

League  de  Feducation  fami- 

liale 294 

Leo  XIII,  and  the  Catholic 

University 391 

letter  of 392 

Literary  inheritance 38 

Literature  in  New  England 

colonies 399 

new  interest  in 54 

Liturgical  teaching 307 

Liturgy,    educative    princi- 
ples  in 308 

Locke,   on  the  function  of 

the  state 258 

Lord's  prayer  and  instincts .  179 

Love, function  of  brotherly.  267 

law  of 169 

of  God,  guiding  principle.  232 

Macaulay  and  the  Church .  .   300 
MacDonald,   George,  baby 

rhyme 205 

Madison  on  education 359 

Man   and   woman   comple- 
ments of  each  other, 

284,  287 
Man,  ethical  and  biological .   163 

spiritual  nature  of 229 

Mann,  Horace 339,  349 

Father  of  Public  Schools.   361 

Marriage,  a  Sacrament 279 

indissolubility  of 278 

Massachusetts,  early  schools 

in 339 

state  system  of  education 

in 359 


Materialism  and  culture. . .  248. 

remedies  for 246 

tendency  towards 245 

Maternal  pedagogy,  course 

.in 294 

Matrimony,   educational 

value  in 313 

Memory,  function  of 243 

load,  injury  of 202 

loads 109 

Mental     and    organic    de- 
velopment  122,  125, 

127.  129,  192 

Mental    and    physical    de- 
velopment    195 

assimilation 108,  116 

and  culture 248 

continuity,     preservation 

of 319 

development 117,  201 

and  the  educative  pro- 
cess    117 

and  the  teacher 60 

food 109 

food  supply,  four  sources 

of 43,46 

forces,  teacher's  control  of     58 

growth 101 

and  environment 105 

and     mental    develop- 
ment  200,  201 

ratios  of 114 

Mental  parasitism  in  chil- 
dren    217 

Mental    scaffolding,    neces- 
sity of 207 

symmetry,  necessity  of . .  211 

Method,  analytic 48 

didactic 48 

dynamic.  . .  . 51 

Methods,  organic 49 

Micrococcus,  rate  of  growth  112 

Miracle,  the 188 

play 404 

Miracles  and  natural  law. ..   1 

Mission,  necessity  of 168 

Models  for  imitation 1 

Monastic  schools,  aim  of ...  23d 
Monism,  inconsistency  of ...  140 
Monotheism,  growth  of. ...  132 


442 


INDEX 


Montessori 190 

Moral  teaching,  difficulty  of  273 

introduction  of 344 

scope  of 272 

Morphological  and  physio- 
logical development.    128 
Mother,  increased  influence 

of 286 

Motherhood,  degradation  of     96 

Motivation 238 

Motives  in  teaching 421 

Music,  value  of 241 

Mystery,  rational 136 

teaching  of 305 

National  University,  a 358 

Natural    and    supernatural 

law... 172 

law  and  miracle 135 

selection 1 05 

Nature  and  God 137 

and  the  supernatural. . . .   177 

breaks  in 142 

interest  in  the  problems  of     52 

opposing 187 

revelation,  art,  language 
as  mental  food  sup- 
ply  43,  46 

unity  in 133,  144 

universality  of  laws  of ...  145 
Neurology  and  psychology.  141 
New  England,  elementary 

education  in 355 

schools,  centralizing  tend- 
ency in 362 

early 355 

Newton 134 

Normal  school,  aim  of 157 

the  first  in  New  England.   360 
training,  progress  in 419 

Obedience  and  dominion. . .   138 

spirit  of 271 

to  law 182 

Oberschulcollegium 352 

Obsolete  adjustments,  sup- 
pression of 165 

O'Connell.  Bishop 398 

Ontogeny 120 


Organic  andTdidactic  meth- 
ods...    115 

mental  development. .  .122, 
125,  127.  129.  192 

development 119 

teaching  of  the  Church. ..   310 

Pagan  and  Christian  ideals.   170 

trend  in  education 171 

Parable,  functions  of 173 

of  the  sanctions 233 

structure  of 209 

Parasite  and  embryo 214 

Parasitic  habits,  formation 

.of 218 

Parasitism,  mental 217 

of  locomotion 216 

of  nutrition 216 

of  protection 216 

Parent,  functioning  for  off- 
spring    122 

Parental  support,  necessity 

of 286 

Parents  as  teachers 282,  293 

authority  of 281 

Parents'  duty  towards  chil- 
dren    280 

Parochial   schools   and   the 

Council  of  Baltimore  386 

early 335 

Partridge,  G.  E 28,  64 

Pasteur,  Louis 139 

Patria  Potestas 332 

Paulsen,     endorsement     of 

Foerster 411 

on    the   function    of   the 

state 260 

Pedagogy,  maternal,  course 

in 294 

Personal    experience,    func- 
tions of 153,  154 

Phylogeny 120 

Philosophy     of    education, 

aim  of 22 

and  History  of  Education     21 
and  Psychology  of  Educa- 
tion      21 

danger  of  false  principles 

in 24,  25 

effect  of 22,23.  24 


443 


Philosophy   in   the   normal 

school 22 

necessary  for  clergy,  the 

teachers,  the  layman,  9,  21 

scope  of 7,  10,  121 

throe  ideals  in C 1 

Philosophy  oi'  life  and  educa- 
tion       LI 

Catholic 31 

materialistic SO 

Physical  adjustment  neces- 
sary    190 

and  mental  development.   195 

and  social  heredity 91,  181 

defects,  removal  of 192 

development  and  educa- 
tional aim 181 

education 161,  181 

heredity  and    ^ucation..  161 

and  id;-;'! 25 

limitations  of 85 

inheritance    and    educa- 
tional aims 165 

Physiological  and  morpho- 
logical development.    128 

Plant  life,  laws  of 124 

Plastic  period,  limitations  of  148 
Plasticity,  a  passive  quality     65 

advantages  ot 62 

advantages  and  disadvan- 
tages of 86 

and     changing     environ- 
ment      70 

and  civilization 79 

and  education 74,  78 

and  environment 63 

and  habit 78 

and  instinct 36,  37 

and  redemption 27,  28 

as  absence  of  adj  ustment .     74 

as  aim  in  education 65 

in  animals  and  in  man.  .  .  62 
individual,  advantage  of .  75 
individual  and  racial ....  72,  73 

in  education 146 

in  the  Church 68,  69 

in  various  races 62,  63 

of  Christian  education. . .    147 

period  of 79 

production  of 71 


Plasticity,    progressive 

changes  in <M 

value  of 63,  114 

Plato  and  popular  education  259 

Play,  function  of 188 

Potestas  Patria 279 

Precocity,  cause  of 197 

Primitive  religions 132 

Problems,  new  educational.       8 

Productive  scholarship 115 

Professional   and   academic 

subjects 22 

teachers       in       Catholic 

schools 423 

teachers    in    the    public 

schools 420 

training  of  teachers 360 

Progress,  woman's  part  in. .   288 
Propaganda,    Congregation 
of       and       Catholic 

schools 387 

Prosser,  and  industrial  edu- 
cation    223 

Protestantism  and  education  359 
disintegrating  principles.   404 
Protestants,   educational 

mistakes  of 320 

Prussian  schools  and  social 

laminae 352 

Prussia,  state  schools  in. ...   349 
Psychology  and  neurology. .    141 
in  the  Church's  method 

of  teaching 345 

of  education,  scope  of ....   117 
Public  schools  and  progress.  424 

Public  School  Society 341 

teachers,  selecting  of 415 

teachers,  tenure  of 420 

Pulpit  teaching 306 

Punishment,  functions  of. ..   155 

Puritans  and  art 398 

and  literature 398 

and  music 399 

and  science 399 

Race  experience  and  indivi- 
dual life 188 

history,  foreshortening  of.   121 
improvement   as   aim   in 

education 65 


444 


INDEX 


Reading  schools 414 

Recapitulation  and  the  Cul- 
ture Epoch  Theory. .     86 

theory 81,  120,  166 

Receptive  scholarship 115 

Redemption,  an  educational 

aim 115 

Reformation  and  education, 

338,  349 

Reformers,  educational  prin- 
ciples of 320 

Reign  of  law  in  the  educa- 
tive process 145 

man's  recognition  of 132 

Religion  and  progress 329 

and  written  language. .  .  .   324 
banished  from  the  schools .  .45, 
344,  398 
demand    for     in     public 

schools 345 

exclusion  of,  a  comprom- 
ise    405 

in  the  Catholic  school 398 

in  the  curriculum 45 

of  India 183 

psychological  aspects  of,  29,  30 

teaching  of 404 

Religions,  primitive 132 

Religious  ideals,  influence  of  426 

inheritance 38 

novitiate  and  the  training 

of  teachers 422 

and  asceticism 431 

teachers,  training  of 431 

Renaissance 336 

Rigidity  and  environment,  70,  71 

of  species,  cause  of 70 

Revelation  and  intelligence.   171 
art,    literature,    language 
as  mental  food  sup- 
ply  43,  46 

Rewarding  children 234 

Roman  education 331 

Rousseau's  teaching,   influ- 
ence of 168 

Sacramental  system 810 

Saints  as  models 409 

imitation  of 317 

lives  an  encouragement.  .   410 


Saints,  lives  of  as  imitative 

models 170 

reverence  for 317 

Salamanders,  respiration  of .     84 

Sanction,  inward. 57,  58 

Scandal,  danger  of 317 

effects  of 154 

Science,  pure  and  applied.  .     22 

Scientific  inheritance 38 

Scholarship,  productive.  ..  .115, 
245,  247 

receptive 115,  245,  247 

Scola  Cantorum 335 

School  an  educative  agency  321 
an  offshoot  of  the  Church  328 

and  home 348 

cooperation  of 186,  294 

and  industrial  efficiency . .   222 

and  life 408 

and  society 220 

and  social  needs 333 

as  real  life 409 

experience 407 

function  of 61,  321 

gardens 240 

hygiene 184,  211 

new  obligations  of 188 

organization    of,   on    na- 
tional lines 385 

origin  of 322,  324 

relation  to  church 321 

to  home 321 

to  state 321 

sources  of  progress  in ....     57 
system  doubleheaded. .  .  .   414 

test  of  the  successful 57 

the 321 

units,  articulation  of 401 

Schools  of  the  Prophets 327 

Secondary   aims   in   educa- 
tion    180 

Secular  branches  in  religious 

light 405 

Sedgwick  and  organic 

memory 81 

Self-consciousness    of    nou- 

veau  riche 251 

Self-control  and  citizenship.   272 

Self-conquest 73 

Self-conquest,  teachiofng  . .   190 


INDEX 


445 


Self-determination 124 

Self-development,    aim     of 

child's  activities 222 

Self-sacrifice  and  citizenship  271 

Self-support 219 

Sensory    training    and    the 

elementary  school. . .   237 
Seward,  Governor,  message 

of 341 

Sex  hygiene,  teaching  of .  . .   427 
Shahan,  Bishop,  and  Catho- 
lic University  Bulletin.   392 

Simultaneous  method 378 

Sisterhoods,  number  of 380 

work  of 383 

Sisyphaean  process 51 

Smith,    Mary    E.,    Eskimo 

Stories  by 96 

Social  and  physical  heredity  181 
claim  vs.  individual  claim. 

39,  41 

efficiency,  education  for. .  228 
environment,  preparation 

for 277 

heredity    and    individual 

experience 153 

necessity  of 182 

inheritance 147 

considered  as  food. .  .43,  45 
solidarity,     the    aim     of 

education 364 

Socializing  motives 221 

Soul  and  body 194 

immortality  of 194 

nature  of 194 

Spartan  education 44,  329 

Specialization  and  culture, 

244,  247 

narrowness 140 

too  early 65 

Spencer,  Herbert 70 

Spirit,  ascendancy  of 164 

Spititual    inheritances,    the 

five-fold 38 

transmission  of 39,  40 

Spontaneous  generation 139 

State  and   Catholic  educa- 
tion, aims  of 32 

and  education 330,  331 


State    and    general   educa- 
tion  263,  850 

and  industrial  training. . .  224 

and  the  individual 281 

control  of  education 258 

schools 340 

school  and  Catholic  school      8 

systems 348 

systems,  establishment 

of 342 

supplanting  home 366 

support  of  schools S38 

Static  to  dynamic 48 

Superintendent  of  teachers .  417 
Supernatural  and  natural.  .   177 

and  natural  law 173 

guidance,  necessity  of 168 

Teacher,  academic  and  pro- 
fessional training  of.   415 

and  his  training 413 

and  mental  development .     60 
Teacher's  control  of  mental 

forces 58 

Teacher,   disinterested  mo- 
tive of 380 

functions  of 48.  109 

Teachers,  qualifications  of. .   413 
principles  governing    the 

selection  of 417 

training  of 293,  351 

Teacher's  work,  test  of 243 

Teaching  an  economic  func- 
tion  418 

communities,  function  of.  425 

of  men 3 

of  women 383 

types  of 48 

Tendencies,  dangers  of  pres- 
ent   428 

Text-books,  new  methods  in     49 
Thomas,  St.,  union  of  soul 

and  body 194 

Thought  development,  prin- 
ciples governing 133 

Tool  to  machine 284 

Trade  efficiency  and  char- 
acter   263 

Transformation,  Uw  of 201 


446 


INDEX 


Transition    from    home    to 

school 188 

Treitschke  and  popular  edu- 
cation    238 

Truth  as  food  in  modern 

science 41 

the  Gospel 41 

preparation  for  the 209 

Truths,  germinal 209 

TychoBrahe..  ... 134 

Type,  determination  of.  ...  107 

Types  of  development 118 

Ultimate  aim  of   Christian 

education 161 

of  education 38,  39 

U.  S.  Government  and  voca- 
tional education 227 

Unity  in  nature 133,  144 

University,  age  of  entrance.   354 

Vice  and  weakened  author- 
ity    186 

Virginia,  education  in 357 

Vernacular       in       Catholic 

schools 373 

Vital  phenomena,  conscious 

and  unconscious 141 

Vocational  education. . .  .64,  210 
Vocational    education    and 

U.  S.  Government. . .  227 


Vocational  schools 368 

schools     and     the    state 

system 370 

training 239 

Vocation,   religious,   educa- 
tional value  of 313 

the  determination  of 262 

teaching  as  a 379 

Volksschule,  curriculum  of . .  397 

Volksschulen 352 

Voluntary  attention  t«.  in- 
terest    192 

Von  Stein 410 

Vorschule  and  gymnasium.   397 

Washington    on    education  357 
Wife  and  husband,  equality 

of 280 

function  of 279,  290 

Woman  and  domestic  science  287 

Woman  as  home-builder.  .  .  288 

Christian,  position  of . . .  279 

education  of. 289,  290 

Woman's  part  in  progress. .  288 
Women,  teaching  communi- 
ties of 383 

W?riting  schoob 414 

Written  language  and  relig- 
ion   324 

Ziller  and  the  Culture  Epoch 

Theory 87 


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